


Strawberry Wine

by lilnausicaa



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Destiny Island Trio, Fluff and Smut, Friendship/Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2019-11-13 11:43:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 36,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18031100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilnausicaa/pseuds/lilnausicaa
Summary: Sora and Riku navigate their feelings towards each other, developing their relationship and growing up. Kairi teases them. Fun times for all.





	1. Hanging by a Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! :) So I am currently suffering after finishing kh3 and have channeled my feelings into fanfiction, something I haven't done for a long, long, time. This is just something I have been writing for fun. I really enjoy the friendship between the destiny trio and this fic largely focuses on that, along-with starting a new relationship and exploring those aspects. It's extremely simple, and I have never used this website before, so if there are minor mistakes or I don't go into a lot of detail at points...sorry! The pacing is slightly slow, but there will be a lot of fluff/smut and characters teasing each other and being dumb. Sora is kinda dumb in this. You have been warned. Thanks for reading! :)

The day Sora realized his feelings for Riku had been an odd flash, various instances of the past popping up, swimming to the surface, and then panic. Then denial. The main problem was Sora was an inherently friendly and touchy guy, which made it easy to explain away things. So when him and Riku were fighting over the TV remote, a common occurrence, and he slipped, landing in the older boy’s lap, and looked up to see how close his face was…Well his stomach jumped and his heart raced away, and he thought, _What…_

Sora scrambled off, and Riku waved the remote triumphantly. “Looks like I do not have to suffer through The Lion King again.”

Sora resettled on his side of the couch. “You don’t have a proper appreciation for good movies.”

His mind, however, was racing. _What was that? Why did I feel like I was about to explode?_ Images of the past came unabashedly. Kairi kissing him years previously during their brief dating stint, and his lack of feeling anything special. Moments where his eyes caught on Riku at strange times, like while his friend was working out. Times where Sora was clumsy and Riku would grab his hand. When Sora asked why Riku had never dated anyone, and he said he just wasn’t interested at the moment, and it made Sora oddly happy. Or how they had always shared a bed during sleepovers until their parents said it was weird.

_Fuck._

Sora had always been able to brush aside these thoughts when they were more spaced apart—they held hands to help him keep his balance, they shared a bed because they were best friends, and it was natural to look at Riku, he had always been an attractive, muscular guy. Anyone could see that.

But something had clicked now that his entire body had reacted to something as simple as looking at his friend’s face. And panic replaced the butterflies.

“Are you ok?” Riku’s voice reached him. And his face was close again.

“I’m fine!” Sora threw his arms out, pushing Riku away. Riku’s cheek squished against Sora’s palm, irritation bleeding out clearly.

“Are you that mad that I turned off your movie? We’ve seen it so many times.”

“No, I’m not mad at all but I..have to go,” Sora said in a rush before jumping up and bolting out of the room.

Riku narrowed his eyes in confusion and heard the front door of his house slam closed. Which was highly unusual for a number of reasons, the first being that Sora always expected to spend the entire weekend with Riku. He sent a text that said, “Are you sure you’re ok? Are you coming back over tomorrow?”

Sora was fast walking home, his arms swinging wildly. _I like Riku I like Riku I like Riku._

“No..that’s crazy…we’re just really good friends,” he said out loud. The sun was setting and it was hot on his face. He was cutting through the beach, sand being pushed up and disturbed from his hurried pace.

He made it home and threw himself on his bed, ignoring his parents own confusion at seeing him. _I don’t like Riku. That would be crazy._

_…what if he finds out?_

_He can’t find out!_

Sora groaned, kicking his legs feebly against the bed. If he was having weird feelings about Riku, it would clearly ruin their friendship. Riku wouldn’t want to be around him anymore. A wave of sadness came over him and he decided to text Kairi to distract himself. He reached into his pocket, finding nothing.

Sora sat up, digging in his other pocket, coming up empty.

_Great…I left my phone at Riku’s house…_

Riku had naturally realized his feelings for Sora much, much earlier. Much to his displeasure it was around the time that Sora had started dating Kairi. He acknowledged it, but pushed it out of his mind. Everyone liked Sora. Besides, there was no way Sora would ever like him.

He was jealous of Kairi, but that relationship had quickly fizzled out. He was secretly happy about that, which made him feel bad. That had been years ago regardless and the three were still friends.

It didn’t bother Riku anymore. He was happy being Sora’s best friend.

Sora, upon realizing that his phone was not with him, stared blankly at the wall. He didn’t feel like facing Riku again so soon. Riku, however, had made the choice for him, and arrived at the door of his room, panting.

“What are you doing?” Sora asked slowly.

“You…didn’t…text…me…back…” Riku panted.

“Oh, I accidently left my phone at your house.”

Riku stared, feeling foolish. “Oh, I see. I just..you usually text me right back.”

Sora smirked, “Were you worried about me?”, came out before he could stop himself.

“As if!” Riku made to shove him but Sora dodged out of the way.

“I guess I should go get my phone, huh?”

“Unless it’s a gift for me.”

They walked back. Sora blatantly refused to look at Riku, kicking himself for asking if his friend was worried about him. It was beyond awkward; Sora just wanted time to himself.

Riku snuck looks at his friend. _Something is definitely up. Sora usually won’t shut up._

“Seriously, did I make you mad or something?” Riku asked abruptly as they approached his house.

“What?? N-no.”

Riku pushed the door open, giving his friend a look.

“I just forgot that I was going to help my mom with something today,” Sora said quickly.

Riku, not believing him one bit, let it drop. Sora retrieved his phone while Riku laid out on the couch, arms behind his head, yawning. “Well then I’m going to have a horror movie marathon without you since you’re such a baby with them.”

“Hey! I am not!”

Riku’s mouth twitched into an amused smile, remembering all the times he had managed to scare Sora in the past. “Uh-huh. So I’ll see you Monday.”

“Uh, yeah. Bye.”

Riku lazily waved a hand as a goodbye while Sora rushed off, heart pounding once more.

The week passed by quickly. Sora managed to avoid Riku most of the time, for which Sora was eternally grateful for since just thinking about his friend seemed to make his face burn.

The trouble came Friday when he was trying to rush Kairi, again, into walking home from school without Riku. She tucked her hair behind her head, giving Sora a weird look. “What is up with you lately?” she asked. “We haven’t walked with Riku all week.”

“Nothing! I just have to get home quickly to help my mom out.”

They stood in the courtyard, where Kairi had stopped and insisted on waiting for Riku. “Help her with what?”

Sora was terrible at lying and he knew this. Kairi was also extremely good at knowing what was up with her boys. “I..” Sora sighed. “I’m just avoiding Riku right now, ok?”

Kairi snorted. “Well that is obvious.”

He grabbed her wrist. “So let’s just go, ok?”

She refused to move. “Why are you avoiding him? You do realize that’s going to be impossible tomorrow right?”

“Tomorrow? What’s tomorrow?”

“You’re so dumb sometimes.” She yanked her arm away, a bit annoyed.

“I am not!”

“We’re going on our trip for spring break.”

Sora stared at her, dumbfounded. _How did I forget??_ Every spring break, they went on a short vacation up to the mountains where Riku’s family rented a cabin. They had always gone with the three of them and Riku’s family but this year, they had managed to convince their parents to let the three of them go alone. Riku was set to graduate in a month and a half while Sora and Kairi were a year behind. They framed it as the last chance for the three childhood friends to spend time together while all still in high school.

“Oh.” Sora said flatly. “I forgot.”

Riku appeared at the moment, flicking Sora’s forehead. “What did you forget this time?”

Sora rubbed his head, pouting. “Will you two stop making fun of me?”

“He forgot about our trip,” Kairi put in as the three of them began their usual short walk home.

“Are you serious?” Riku asked. “We’re leaving tomorrow morning.”

“I’ve just been preoccupied!” Sora protested.

“With?”

“Helping my mom!” Both of his friends rolled their eyes. Sora crunched up his face and burst, “I better get home to pack! Bye!”

He sprinted off, his over the shoulder backpack swinging wildly. His friends watched him go, walking slowly. Sora knew he was in trouble; both of them were too perceptive. For all he knew, Kairi was telling Riku of his weird feelings right this second.

He ran harder.

“What is his deal?” Riku asked, shaking his head.

“I dunno,” Kairi said thoughtfully. “He’s avoiding you for some reason. Did you make him mad?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Well this better not ruin our trip.”

“He’ll probably snap out of it.”

“I hope so.”

Sora, predictably, did not entirely snap out of it. The next morning, they meet at Riku’s. They began to pile their stuff into Riku’s truck, a hand-me-down from his father, when Sora realized that the three of them would all be sitting right next to each other. For hours.

“Hey,” Sora called out, fidgeting with his duffel bag nervously. “Shouldn’t we take more than one car?”

“…why?” Riku asked, pausing from where he had been chucking a bag into the truck.

“More space?” Sora asked hopefully. He didn’t have his own car so he had to salvage this in a way that convinced them to take Kairi’s white volkswagon.

Kairi stuck her arm out, presenting Riku’s truck in its entirety, clearly showing how much space they already had. “It’s not like you’re bringing a lot,” she added. “Also why are you wearing shorts? The weather is going to be colder.”

“Whoops.” Sora muttered. He had, out of habit, put on shorts. “But it might be good to take two cars! So we can..uh…”

His two friends looked skeptical.

“I’ve never been in your bug, Kairi!” he exclaimed, referring to her car. She had gotten it recently for her birthday but didn’t really need to use it since everything was within walking distance.

Her face brightened. “That’s true.”

“Yeah,” Sora said quickly, “but all of our stuff won’t fit in it, so we can take both cars!”

“You want me to drive hours by myself?” Riku deadpanned.

“You like being by yourself!”

Sora looked at him expectantly, practically begging with his expression alone. _I mean, do I really want to be next to him right now, with how weird he has been acting?_ Riku thought.

“Fine, if Kairi’s cool with it, Mr. Can’t Drive.” Riku waved the topic off and went back to chucking stuff into his vehicle.

Kairi clapped her hands excitedly. “Let me ask my mom if it’s ok!”

_Yes_ , Sora thought triumphantly. _I got Kairi excited about her new car and now I don’t have to be with Riku for hours._

Although that still left the good portion of a week in which he would have to ignore the weird feelings bubbling up inside him. But he left those worries to a future Sora.

Kairi announced that the new plan would work and Sora bounded forward, happily. His friends almost looked relieved at his returned cheerful self. They parted ways with Riku and shoved into her little car. It had a bunch of artificial flowers covering the dash, which made Sora smile.

“I’m so excited,” Kairi gushed, reeving the engine as they sped off, following behind Riku. “I can’t believe my mom is letting me take the car.”

Sora grinned, fiddling with an AUX cord until the song “How Far I’ll Go” was playing. It seemed fitting considering how long they would be in the car for, but Kairi immediately rolled her eyes, knowing he had just put on his typical Disney playlist.

“Your mom is only letting you go because Riku will be there, let’s be serious.”

Kairi squinched up her nose. “Well he is the responsible one.”

“Well, we have to do all the stuff we always do!”

“Definitely,” Kairi agreed. They were now pulling onto the highway, gaining speed and getting further away from the ocean they were so accustomed to.

The scent of vanilla was filling his nose. It was nice, and clearly coming from some fancy glittery car freshener, but a little overpowering, so he rolled down the window a crack. A cool refreshing breeze rushed in.

“So I kinda wanted to invite some other people,” Kairi continued. “Like Selphie and them. But then I thought it would be more fitting with just the three of us, you know?”

“Uh-huh,” Sora said cautiously.

Now the song “Let It Go” was playing. Kairi glanced at the speakers distastefully. “We are _not_ listening to Disney for this whole trip.”

“I’ll put your music on later,” Sora half whined.

“Good!”

“Including your stupid boy bands…” Sora muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” he smiled innocently.

Half an hour later, Sora was already digging into the snack bag he had stashed at his feet, dangling sour gummy worms into his mouth despite the fact that it wasn’t even noon yet. He had just taken a big bite of one when Kairi said, “So are you going to tell me why you didn’t want to be in Riku’s truck?”

Sora took a swift, large breath, which forced a bit of gummy worm down his throat. He began sputtering and coughing.

“Oh my god, are you ok??” Kairi shrieked, looking away from the road for a split second.

Sora gave one last big cough. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said weakly, tucking the candy away for now and looking out the window at passing grassy fields.

They fell silent for a bit until Kairi pressed on. “There has to be a reason you’re staying away from Riku. You can ride in my car whenever you feel like, for one thing.”

“I just thought it would be more fun with two cars,” Sora mumbled.

“Is he acting strange again? Like when he got all distant and moody?” She squinted her eyes in thought. “But he seems normal to me…”

“Nothing is going on, ok, I’ve just been busy and stuff.”

“Yeah, totally,” Kairi said sarcastically. “You can tell me anything, you know. And I don’t want this to ruin our trip.”

“It won’t!”

Kairi looked unconvinced.

“I’m serious!”

“So why can’t you tell me what’s going on?” Kairi asked.

“It’s…it’s not a big deal or anything, that’s why. Everything is fine.”

Kairi fell silent, and a bitter mood fell over the car. Sora, naturally, could not stand it. “He just makes me nervous, ok,” he said in a rush.

“What?” Kairi blurted, surprised. “Nervous? Why?”

“I..I don’t know, just don’t tell him, ok?”

“I won’t, but like why would he make you nervous?”

“I dunno, Kai, maybe because he’s always been so competitive.” Sora thought of this dumb excuse as quickly as he could.

“Ok, whatever. You’d better act normal from now on though, it’s getting really annoying. And there’s no reason to be nervous. It’s _Riku_.”

“I know, I know. Just forget about it.”

“Ok, ok.”

The rest of the ride went smoothly. Sora always enjoyed talking with Kairi. They talked about the trip, their classes, gossip about their peers, funny things they had seen online recently, speculated what the future would look like. The only time things got a little dicey was when Kairi brought up the time a young Sora announced he would marry her, and Riku said no one would marry someone as ugly as Sora, which made Sora cry. They also devoured most of Sora’s snacks between them. When Riku’s truck pulled to a pit stop to get lunch, and they were too full to get real food, the older teen had gave them a look and said, “Of course you ate all that junk food already.”

By the time they had reached the cabin, everyone was ready to get out of the car. The familiar site brought a smile to Sora’s face. It was a relatively small cabin in a wooded area near a lake. It probably would fit in a horror movie easily, something Riku had used before to scare Sora.

The cabin had all the fixings of a regular house: a kitchen, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, and a living room set up with a nice TV. One bedroom had bunk beds while the other had a queen sized bed. When they came here before, the three would share the smaller room and take turns sleeping in the bunk beds or on an inflatable mattress on the floor. Now that it was just the three of them, however, the larger bed was available.

This thought bubbled up in Sora’s mind as they brought their stuff in. “Who will sleep on which bed?”

The three looked at each other. No one had thought about it.

“Well Kairi should probably take the bigger bed. Then she can have the attached bathroom and spend all that time preening without bothering us.”

“Excuse you, Riku,” Kairi butted in, “you _preen_ more than I do.”

“Riku is the tallest, so shouldn’t he get the bigger bed?” Sora tried.

“If I didn’t know you better,” Riku said, “I would think you were trying to get in Kairi’s pants.”

“Hey! That’s not funny!”

“It is kinda funny,” Kairi laughed.

“You guys are impossible.”

“We could have a competition each day, and whoever wins will get the big bed,” Riku suggested. Sora shot a look at Kairi, like, _look how competitive he is._

“Ok, hot shot,” Kairi crossed her arms over her chest, “what is the competition today because I want to hurry up and put my stuff away.”

“Hmm.”

“A race?” Sora suggested, knowing Riku would win.

“We always do that.”

“Arm wrestle?”

Riku stared at him. “At least suggest something that doesn’t have an obvious winner.”

“There’s an old wii here,” Kairi said. “We could do the party games or something.”

“Dance dance revolution!” Sora beamed.

And of course Sora won. He triumphantly carried his stuff to the bigger room, mockingly shaking his hips. “We never had a chance,” Kairi sighed. “He used to be so addicted to that game.”

The pair began to settle in. “Was he weird in the car too?” Riku asked lowly.

“Not really,” Kairi said thoughtfully. “But you probably should try to talk to him.”

Riku nodded solemnly, making Kairi giggle. “Lighten up! We need to have a fire tonight. And guess what.” She smiled mischievously.

“What?” Riku asked cautiously.

“Wakka got me some of this.” She pulled out a bottle of something that was clearly alcoholic.

“Why am I not surprised.”

“I’m not saying we should get drunk or anything! But maybe it would lighten the mood.”

“Maybe.” Riku shrugged. The two of them had drank before, moderately. Sora never had. He said he couldn’t stand the bitter smell of it.

They spent the rest of their time cooking fish for dinner and lounging until it was dark enough for the fire. Sora had mostly relaxed as this was all very routine and normal. It helped that Kairi was there.

Riku set up the fire and they sat around it. It was a beautiful night, but the nights up here were always pretty cold. Sora huddled closer to the fire and Kairi rubbed her arms. They weren’t really talking, just looking at the fire. After a little bit, Kairi jumped out of her seat.

“Well, I’m pretty tired, so I am going to bed early. Goodnight!” she said cheerfully before bounding away.

“Wa—“ Sora started but didn’t finished because she was already gone.

_She didn’t seem tired at all…_

And now he was alone with Riku.


	2. Raining Blood

                The fire crackled and the wind picked up, momentarily shooting smoke in Sora’s direction. He covered his eyes until it died down, nose burning, then risked a peek at Riku.

                Riku was slightly hunched over, looking…troubled. The fire casted odd shadows over him and Sora felt his throat get tight. He wanted to make an excuse to leave but couldn’t stand seeing his friend look like that. It reminded him of a rough patch they had gone through at one point in which Riku isolated himself and seemed to think Sora and Kairi were going to forget about him and leave him behind. Riku was usually so strong and confident, it always hurt Sora to see anything less.

                But he didn’t know what to say. He dug into the dirt with the toe of his shoe, the silence deafening.

                “So what do you want to do tomorrow?” Sora finally asked.

                “We could go fishing.”

                “You are the _only_ one who likes fishing. It is so boring.”

                Riku chuckled, and Sora felt a bit lighter. “Maybe we could go on a hike,” Riku suggested instead.

                “I was thinking we could have a video game marathon.”

                “That’s what we do at home, stupid.”

                “We have a whole week!”

                Riku got up to add more wood to the fire and once he sat back down, he asked, “Are you ok?”

                “Yeah, I’m fine,” Sora squeaked, immediately on guard.

                “Alright,” Riku said, giving him a smile. Blood rushed to Sora’s cheeks and he cursed at his dumb body. Riku thought about pressing further, but Sora had seemed fairly normal today, so he let it go.

                However, Sora choose this time to excuse himself and shut himself up in his room, rolling around on the bed. _How am I going to get through this week?_ Meanwhile, Kairi was lying awake in the bottom bunk, wondering if her friends were sorting things out, and Riku was snubbing out the fire, annoyed again at Sora’s avoidance.  

                The next day Sora got his wish of staying indoors playing video games as it was pouring outside. “Did the forecast call for rain?” Kairi asked, holding up a curtain to look out the window.

                “I don’t remember,” Riku shrugged. “It’ll probably blow over anyway.”

                She dropped the curtain. Sora hadn’t appeared out of his room yet, but this wasn’t too unusual. Her and Riku busied themselves with making blueberry muffins and Riku mentioned his lackluster conversation with Sora the day before, but that Sora had said he was ok.

                Sora could smell muffins from where he was curled up under the blankets. It made his stomach growl. He couldn’t manage to pull himself out of bed yet, not when thoughts were rushing around still. He vaguely remembered holding Riku’s hand in his dream and it was so nice, but he felt so guilty and confused over it. _Damn dream._

                He pushed his face down into the mattress, knowing he would have to get up sooner or later. _I just need to forget all this nonsense. Riku is my friend. Friend._

A weight suddenly fell onto his bed and he was launched into the air with a shriek. Sora crumbled to the floor, shocked, and with a dull pain in his butt. “What the hell?” he burst.

                Riku and Kairi were laying on his bed, doubled up and laughing. “We thought maybe you died, so we decided to check up on you,” Kairi said between laughs.

                “…by jumping onto my bed and catapulting me into the air?”

                “Yes.”

                “You have batter on your cheek,” Sora grumbled.

                He pulled himself up, happy he had decided to go to bed fully dressed, and not in any variation of undress, as he usually did at home. After a quick shower, they set to chowing down on muffins and watching Netflix. Sometime after lunch, Kairi asked, “What’s the competition for today?”

                “Can’t we just play more wii games?”

                “No, Sora, that would be boring.”

                “How about..who can fit the most marshmallows in their mouth?”

                Riku stood up. “I think there are some board games in the closet, let me check.”

                He came back holding mouse trap and twister. “Let’s vote,” he announced.

                _Twister…_ Sora thought. _No way in hell am I playing twister with Riku._

Of course Sora voted for mouse trap and the other two voted for twister. “Why did you betray me, Kairi?”

                Kairi gave him a full smile and peace signs. “Because I am clearly going to win since I am the most flexible, and those bunk beds are hard as rocks.”

                “Traitor..” Sora mumbled.

                Since one of them would have to be the referee and spin the wheel, they decided to play in rounds. “I’ll be referee first,” Sora offered immediately.

                Riku and Kairi lasted quite a while, both clearly getting into the spirit of it. Sora felt panic raising in him more and more with each passing second. I mean technically he wouldn’t necessarily have to touch Riku at all, but it was hard to believe this when Riku and Kairi were already twisted into intertwining pretzels in front of him.

                Eventually Riku slipped and his knee touched the floor. Kairi began a victory dance. “That bed is as good as mine.”

                “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Riku said. “Sora is pretty flexible. Sometimes he gets out of my holds and I have no idea how.”

                _Don’t think about wrestling Riku,_ Sora thought, which meant he was thinking about wrestling Riku.

                “Who’s turn now?” Kairi asked.

                “I’ll play with Kairi.” Sora shoved the spinner into Riku’s hands.

                “Bring it!”

                Sora concentrated on the game. Maybe if he won, he would be able to keep his private room. Right foot….red….things were pretty easy until Kairi reached over him and her chest pressed against his side. “Jeez Kairi, I don’t want to feel your boobs all over me.”

                Kairi laughed. “Well too bad because even you trying to embarrass me isn’t going to help you win.”

                Sora grumbled. Unfortunately he lost when he had to move his hand a bit too far and he flopped down onto his stomach, Kairi letting herself fall on top of him joyously. “This means I win right? Yessssss.”

                “Me and Sora don’t have to compete since you already won right?” Riku asked.

                _Oh thank god._

“Hmm, well that’s no fun, you two should play too!” Kairi said brightly. 

                “But that’s a waste of time if you already won,” Sora tried.

                “No go on!” Kairi grabbed the spinner and called out the first color-body part combination.         

                Sora looked at Riku warily, noting that Riku was wearing a tight tank top and sweat pants, which would not help the situation. Riku took that to be some sort of challenge, and Sora resigned himself to playing.

                After a while, it was too hard to maintain distance from Riku. Also Riku kept glancing at him, grinning like he was having the time of his life. Sora’s entire body felt hot and tense. He slid a foot underneath his friend, wincing internally. Riku ended up pressed against his back much like Kairi had been, but it was so so much worse. Sora could feel the warmth and outlines of his body. Everything smelled like Riku. It was too much. Sora pretended to slip and fall. “Whoops,” he said sheepishly, untangling himself quickly and standing up. “Riku wins. I gotta go to the bathroom.”

                Sora dashed off. “I’m so pumped for that bed,” Kairi stated. She looked after where Sora had disappeared. “If I didn’t know better, I would think he likes you.”

                Riku snorted, unaffected. “Of course he likes me, he’s my best friend.”

                “You’re so surprisingly dense sometimes.”

                “What’s that supposed to mean??”

                “Nothing,” Kairi sing-songed.

                It poured all day, so they played video games and made a bunch of breakfast foods for dinner. Sora’s behavior was bothering Riku again. At one point, Sora had left to grab something, and when he came back, the only spot to sit was right in-between his two friends. Instead of sitting there, he sat on the armrest on Kairi’s side until she moved over. Later, he got chocolate on his face from their chocolate chip pancakes and when Riku wiped it off with his thumb, he had received a hard swat as a reward, and then Sora disappeared for a good twenty minutes, outside supposedly talking to his parents. He said they were worried, but his parents were extremely laid back, and trusted Kairi and Riku to no end. Kairi noticed the way her two friends kept sneaking looks at each other and contemplated getting her alcohol out, but she had wanted to drink it by the fire or by the lake, so she held off.

                Things were getting a bit dull by the time evening rolled around. Kairi decided to blast “As Long As You Love Me” by the Backstreet Boys, if only to annoy her friends. They both immediately groaned.

                “I thought you had outgrown this,” Riku grumbled.

                “No one outgrows The Backstreet Boys!” Kairi shrieked, fake offended. She twirled around the living room.

                “This isn’t even a song you can dance to, Kai,” Sora said.

                “I can’t hear you!” She stuck her tongue out, singing and continuing to dance around.

                Sora shrugged. Riku was sitting on the couch with him, sipping a soda. Eventually the song ended and Riku put on “Call Me Maybe” which tied into a shared joke between the three of them. They all burst out laughing. Riku began dancing with Kairi but Sora stubbornly, and nervously, remained put. _Dancing is a no-no with the way my brain is messed up._

                They kept putting on songs, Kairi sticking mostly to pop and Riku playing rock. Eventually Kairi stood in front of Sora, hands on her hips. “Stop being a spoil sport and put on a song.”

                “Fine,” he grumbled. He put on “7th Element” by Vitas and sat back down.

                Kairi and Riku stared at him as the song played.

                “What?”

                “I was expecting Disney,” Riku said.

                “What is this??” Kairi said.

                “It’s a good song,” Sora said.

                Riku walked over and paused the song. “No.”

                “Rude!”

                “Pick something else.”  

                Sora put on “Tiptoe through the Tulips” by Tiny Tim out of spite. His friends rolled his eyes but kept dancing. They kept playing music and Kairi ended up grabbing Sora’s hand and physically pulling him up. “Dance!” she demanded.

                He obliged reluctantly but ended up getting into it. He did love to dance after all. He spun Kairi around laughing, and kinda danced with Riku as well. From a safe distance. Riku was bad at dancing, and didn’t particularly like it, so it was amusing to watch. “It’s so weird seeing him dance,” Sora whispered to Kairi. Riku was doing some kind of…cha cha movement.

                “He’s doing it for you, you know.”

                “What?”

                “To cheer you up.”

                She spun her way back to the speaker to choose the next song. She put on “I Love You Always Forever” by Donna Lewis for some ungodly reason. Well, probably because she always gravitated towards love songs. Sora’s nerves snapped to attention and he looked for a way to bow out of this situation but Riku was already approaching.

                “You look like you saw a ghost,” he teased.

                “I don’t know what you mean, I’m just dancing.”

                Riku looked him up and down. “You’re standing still.”

                Sora frowned and began to sway his hips. “No, I am dancing, see.”

                “Impressive,” Riku laughed.

                Riku grabbed his hand ( _Why, what are you doing?? Does he realize what kind of song this is?_ ) and tried to spin him around like how they had both spun Kairi. It worked but Sora’s head was rushing. Then he pulled Sora closer—not close enough to actually slow dance but close enough—and tried to lead him in an awkward, sporadic dance. Tried. Sora let it go on for maybe thirty seconds before he pushed roughly away. Riku showed no emotion, save for a flash of something in his eyes. “That—I mean—“ Sora stuttered, ready to run to the bathroom again.

                “I’m a bad dancer, I get it,” Riku said coolly. _But we have danced plenty times before,_ he thought privately.

                “Sorry.”

                The song switched to something with a faster tempo and a blur of red flashed by. “Are you guys done dancing or what?”

                The two boys looked at each other awkwardly. “I guess not,” Sora finally said. All three of them began to dance together and the tension melted away slightly.

                They ended up sweaty and exhausted on the floor. “Well that’s my work out for the week,” Sora announced.

                Riku snorted and Sora shot him a look.

                Now that it was quiet, the roar of the storm raging outside was extremely loud.

                “It’s really pouring,” Riku commented.

                Kairi rolled so that she was sitting up, pushing her hair out of her face. “We should run out into the rain!”

                Riku stared at her. “You’re just full of ideas today aren’t you.”

                “One of us has to be fun.”

                Sora stood up. “Let’s do it.”

                “Yay!” Kairi jumped up with him.

                The three of them ran outside, Riku straying a little behind. They were soaked within a matter of seconds. Kairi and Sora held their arms out and spun. Riku crossed his arms over his chest, but he was smiling. Sora was about to suggest going back inside when he suddenly froze.

                “What’s wrong?” Riku asked.

                Sora brought a finger to his mouth in a shushing motion, eyes wide and scared. Kairi looked at him confused. Then they heard it.

                The screaming guitar of Slayer’s “Raining Blood.” They whipped their heads around looking for the source, and saw someone yards away walking through the forest. He was wearing all black, with black hair to match, and was holding a Bluetooth speaker that was obviously blasting the song.

                “Why is someone out here?” Sora whispered. No one heard him.

                Sora ran back to the cabin, the other two following closely behind. The door was slammed and locked and Kairi peeked outside. “I think he’s gone,” she said.

                “Why is someone out here?? Who was that?” Sora shrieked.

                “Calm down,” Riku said, shaking water out of his hair. “There are some other cabins out here too. He’s probably staying at one.”

                “What kind of weirdo walks in the rain blasting music?” Kairi shook her head.

                “Are all the windows locked?”

                “You’re too paranoid, Sora.”

                “I am the right amount of paranoid. Did you _see_ him??”

                “Yeah, we all saw him,” Riku said.

                “We should probably take showers and go to bed, before Riku scares you more,” Kairi suggested.

                “He scared himself.”

                “I am not scared!” Sora protested even though he kinda was.

                They let Kairi take a shower first, not wanting to put too much pressure on the water tank. Sora unhappily brought his stuff to the lower bunk bed. Riku was taking off his soaked shirt while Sora tried his best to 1. Dry off with a towel; and 2. Not look at Riku. That was quite difficult because Riku came right in front of him, shirtless, and asked, “Are you just going to stand there in wet clothes?”

                “Yep.” _Oh my god._

                “Weirdo.” Now Riku was moving to take off his sweatpants too. Sora gulped and bolted for the bathroom, carrying his pajamas. He quickly changed and crawled into his bunk bed.

                “Are you not going to take a shower?” Riku asked, confused. He was only wearing shorts now, wringing his hair out in a towel.

                “I’ll take one tomorrow.”

                “Aren’t you cold?”

                “Nope,” Sora lied.

                “If you say so.”

                “I’m gonna go to bed.”

                “Alright, night, Sora.”

                “Night.” Sora forced his eyes closed and Riku turned off the overhead light, only keeping the bathroom light on to cast a sliver of light into the room. Sora could tell he was sitting there on his phone and after a bit he heard him get into the shower. Sora wasn’t tired at all.

                Then Riku climbed up onto the top bunk and Sora pretended to be asleep.

                It sounded like the storm was finally calming outside.

                “Are you sure you’re ok?” Riku asked suddenly.

                Sora’s heart stopped but he stayed silent.

                “I know you’re not asleep,” Riku said, annoyed.

                “How would you know that?” Sora asked, opening his eyes.

                “Your breathing would be different.”

                “It’s creepy that you know that.”

                “It is not, how often have we slept in the same room?”

                Sora didn’t respond, so Riku asked again if he was ok. “I’m fine, I don’t know why I have to keep saying that.”

                “Alright, I’m just saying you seem different.”

                Sora stared up at the bed above him where Riku’s voice was coming from. “I do not.”

                “Are you sick or something?”

                “No.”

                “Your face is always red. Maybe you have a fever, maybe we should check.”

                The bed creaked as if Riku was making to get up. “I was just hot! You’re overthinking things.”

                The bed creaked again. “I guess,” he said slowly. “So you’re having a good time?”

                “Yes so shut up and let me sleep.”

                “Uh-huh, your highness.”

                Sora settled deeper into his covers. _I have to get my act together._

               

               

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas lol  
> I am planning to update every week, and right now I have enough material for..30 ish chapters? As always, thanks for reading. <3


	3. What I've Done

The next day was bright and sunny. The light cut into Sora’s eyes, dragging him awake. He was already in a better mood because he couldn’t remember dreaming anything at all. Riku, naturally, was not in the room; he usually woke up fairly early. Sora hauled himself through a shower and then found Riku sitting at the kitchen table, drinking out of a mug and reading something on his phone.

“Good morning,” he said without looking up.

“Morning,” Sora said cautiously. “What’s for breakfast?”

“Do I look like a chef?” Sora grumbled to himself and raided the cupboards until he found a poptart.

Kairi appeared, beaming. “I slept so great, I hope I get the bed again tonight.”

Sora plopped down at the table, chewing and Riku hummed. “We should have a fishing competition.”

“That sounds like the boringest competition ever,” Sora complained.

“Yeah and Riku will win easily,” Kairi pointed out.

“Regardless, I want to go fishing today,” Riku said.

“Weirdo.”

So they ended up out on the lake, on a rented boat. Riku was fishing while Kairi and Sora were enjoying the sun. Kairi had brought a girly magazine and was making Sora take the quizzes. He was beginning to feel mortified. “Ooooh…here’s a good one! How to know if he likes you!”

“Uh, I don’t think that applies to me, Kairi,” Sora said carefully.

She ignored him, engrossed in the magazine. “Eye contact…smiling….hey, I totally think that guy in my math class is into me! Score!” She grinned.

“Good for you,” Sora said dryly.

“I wonder if there are horoscopes in here…bingo! Sora it says your love life is going to heat up!” She waggled her eyebrows at him.

“I somehow doubt that.”

“Don’t doubt the power of the stars!”

“That stuff is made up, Kairi,” Riku deadpanned.

“Pssh, they’re just for fun. Speaking of.” She tossed the magazine aside. “I am so bored right now.”

“You were literally just gushing over that magazine.” Kairi dipped her fingers into the water and flicked water onto Riku.

He did not budge, completely concentrated on his fishing rod.

“I wish we could go swimming,” Sora lamented. “But the water is too cold.”

“You go swimming all the time back home,” Riku said.

“I like swimming,” Sora pouted.

“We still haven’t decided the competition for the bed,” Kairi said.

“Well I have already caught three fish,” Riku pointed out.

“We are not making fishing a competition,” Sora complained. “Also isn’t that enough for dinner? Why are we still out here?”

“Yes, I second that. We should go on a hike or something,” Kairi put in.

They manage to drag Riku off the water and he prepared the fish for later that day. Kairi began spraying herself with tons of different sprays in preparation for going into the woods, mostly to avoid bugs, and then they trekked out a familiar route. They spent a few hours hiking, oddly in shape enough to last that long. Well it wasn’t surprising that Riku was. Riku was a few yards ahead and Sora caught himself watching him.

“Sooooo…” Kairi started.

“Huh?” Sora turned his head hard enough to cause whip lash.

“Are you feeling less nervous around Riku now?” She smiled kindly.

“Oh, um…I guess.”

“That’s good!”

“Yeah…”

“I’m kinda jealous of you two.”

That caught Sora off-guard. “What? Why?”

“Oh, well, you two are just so close, and you were always off doing stuff without me.”

“You’re my best friend too!”

“I know,” she giggled. “It’s fine. Hey Riku!” She rushed ahead as they were nearing the cabin site again. She suggested they skip stones as the competition of the day. After some flailing and struggling, both her and Sora manage to get their rocks to skip twice, while Riku got his to skip 5 times.

“Looks like I win,” he smirked.

“It was your turn anyway!” Sora said. The day had felt pretty normal, and Sora was feeling good. They ate dinner and prepared another fire, this time with s’mores. Sora was sticky in a matter of seconds, licking marshmallow off his fingers.

“You’re like the messiest eater I know,” Riku commented, resting his head up on a propped arm.

“Shut up.”

They finished eating and resumed staring at the fire. Kairi remembered her stashed alcohol and brought it out with a flourish.

Sora stared at it. “What’s that?”

“Just a drink,” she said brightly. “Let me go get cups.”

“You let her bring that?” Sora asked.

Riku shrugged. “She didn’t tell me she was bringing it.”

“Alright…”

“Ta-da!” Kairi gave everyone a full cup. “I put in some soda so that it will be less bitter.”

Sora stared into his cup like he didn’t believe her. Riku was already sipping his. “This is pretty good, Kai.”

“Thanks!”

“You don’t have to drink it, you know,” Riku said a few minutes later.

Sora still hadn’t touched his drink. “I just feel like it will taste bad.”

“Try it?” Kairi asked. She really wanted Sora to stop being on edge constantly.

Sora took a small sip and only half gagged. “It tastes like bitter sprite.”

Kairi laughed. “Well, yeah. But I also have these.” She brought out chocolate, which immediately perked Sora’s interest. He handed the drink to her and took the chocolates. Many chocolates later, Sora began to feel slightly dizzy. But he also felt relaxed, something he hadn’t completely felt for over a week now, so it seemed like a fair trade off. Kairi was telling old stories. And it was nice. Sora sank deeper into his chair. It was enjoyable listening to his friends talk.

“We should play truth or dare for old time’s sake,” Kairi suggested.

“Nooooooo…” Sora protested.

“There’s only three of us, I don’t know how fun that would be,” Riku pointed out.

“C’mon, just a quick round or two!” She was staring at Riku like she was trying to get him to understand something. Sora did not notice.

Riku agreed and the game began. It was pretty boring at first. Kairi admitted stealing money from her mom once (“But I gave it back a week later!”), Riku ate old crackers that were in the pantry, Sora put on one of Kairi’s skirts briefly (it didn’t fit right anyway). Eventually, Sora’s guard had been dropped for so long, that he answered with, “Truth.” In a snap, Kairi asked, “Why have you been avoiding Riku?”

Sora sat up, suddenly more awake. “I have not! I am literally sitting next to him right now!”

“I mean in general. For the past week.” Sora stole a glance at Riku, who was closely watching the exchange.

“You….I….” He was at a loss for words. That moment when he had fallen into Riku’s lap and Riku’s face was right there filled his head. _This is such a mess. I just want things to go back to normal._

Kairi was saying something. But anger flared up in Sora, fast and unapologetic. “You..you set me up! With these dumb chocolates!” He pointed at her accusingly, making the mostly eaten box of sweets fall to the ground.

“Sora, I—“

“No, we already talked about this and now you’re trying to embarrass me and you two always tease me and act like I’m stupid—“

Riku’s voice cut in gruffly. “Sora, we don’t think—“

“Shut up!” Sora got to his feet, his vision swimming slightly and his heart pounding in his ears. Oh everything felt so strange and he wasn’t used to feeling so angry. He pointed at Riku. “It’s all your fault! Because you’re so….stupid and nice!” With that Sora wobbled off with a sob, back to the cabin.

“…nice?” Riku said blankly.

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry,” Kairi said, tears in her eyes. “I just thought he would be more open. I didn’t think he would get angry.”

Riku picked up the spilled chocolates. “I think he ate too many of these.”

“One of us should probably—“

“I’ll go after him.” They both looked up. Sora was standing at the front door of the cabin, appearing to fight with it. “Can you stop the fire?”

Kairi nodded. “Sorry,” she said lowly.

“It’s alright, you were trying to help.” Riku jogged up to where Sora was whacking the door with his hand.

“It won’t open.”

“Did you try the handle?”

Sora shot him a dirty look but let Riku open the door for him. He made a beeline for the larger room. “Stop following me.”

Riku didn’t point out that this was supposed to be his room tonight, he was just worried his friend would end up throwing up or something. “I said stop following me!!”

“Sora, listen—“

“No!” Sora went to shove Riku but tripped. In an attempt to save himself, he grabbed Riku, which just made both of them fall. They toppled onto the bed. Riku propped himself up with his arms so that he wasn’t pressed up against his friend and made to get up but heard another sob. Sora was covering his face and clearly crying, his body shaking.

“Sora?” Riku asked gently.

“Go away.” Sora’s muffled voice came out.

“I’m sorry.” Sora slowly lowered his hands, his face pink and wet with tears.

“Why?”

“Mostly for letting you eat so many of those chocolates.” Sora huffed and then started crying again, alarming Riku.

“What’s wrong? Why won’t you talk to us?”

“I can’t,” he cried. “I can’t say it.”

“Say what?” Riku asked, confused out of his mind.

Sora stole a glance at him, conscious of the fact that his friend was hovering above him on a bed of all places. “Nothing,” he mumbled.

Riku paused. “I’m gonna get you some water.”

“No!” Sora wrapped his arms around Riku.

Riku’s eyes widened. _What the heck is going on?_   “Sora, you need to stay hydrated—“

“But I want you to stay here,” he sniffed. Riku felt nice around his arms.

“You’re being drunk and ridiculous.”

“No.”

“Oh my gosh, Sora.” Riku pried his fingers off his shirt. “I’ll be right back, I swear.”

Sora sniffed again. “Ok.”

Riku left to grab a water bottle from the fridge. Kairi was sitting on the couch, biting her lip. “Is he ok?”

“I think so, he’s just a little drunk, and crying like a lunatic and clinging to me.”

“I didn’t realize he ate so many of those chocolates.”

“It’s Sora, he was probably popping them into his mouth continuously.”

“I guess you’re right.” She let herself give a laugh. “I feel so bad.”

“He’ll be fine.”

“Alright. I’m gonna go lay down then, if you’re up to watching him.”

Riku gave her a salute. “Get some rest.”

Sora hadn’t moved an inch and Riku made him drink some water. He did so reluctantly. “Are you ever going to tell me why you’re acting so crazy?”

Sora paused. “No.”

Riku rolled his eyes. “You should probably get changed.”

“Not with you in here!”

“Dude, you have changed in front—“ Riku stopped short when he saw the look on his friend’s face. So he was forced to leave and Sora clumsily put on his pajamas before laying back down. He still felt like crying but he wasn’t sure why. Riku returned and made his friend drink more water.

“Do you feel like you’re going to throw up?”

“No, not really.”

“That’s good.” Sora was curled up on his side with Riku sitting away from him at the edge of the bed.

“Is it always going to be like this?”

“Like what?” Riku asked.

“This.”

Riku turned to look at him. He looked so small the way he was curled up on himself. “I dunno, it’s clearly up to you.”

“But I can’t say anything because it would change everything.”

_I have no idea what he is talking about_ , Riku thought. “Is this preferable? You’ve been acting so…uncomfortable and distant, like I’m going to attack you or something.”

“I don’t think you’re going to attack me.”

“Very reassuring, Sora.”

They fell silent. Sora’s head felt funny. He curled tighter, his stomach twisting with a dull pain, suddenly feeling very tired. At least the dizzy feeling had gone away. He began to drift off, still just barely conscious of Riku’s presence a few feet away.

“I just wish you would talk to me,” Riku said, mostly to himself.

Sora’s quiet voice miraculously reached Riku’s ears, causing the older teen to bolt up off the bed, eyes wide and unbelieving. “Riku…I like you.”


	4. I Wouldn't Mind

“Riku…I like you.”

Each word rushed through Riku like electricity. He jumped up to see Sora…sleeping soundly. Had his mind made it up? He hadn’t thought about his feelings for Sora for years, much less entertain the possibility that Sora could like him. How could that add up? Did it even make sense? Had he just misheard Sora grumbling in his sleep? Did the words simply refer to liking as a friend?

Riku never felt so caught off guard in his life. He continued to stare at Sora as if his friend would wake up and say, “Just kidding! Got you good, huh?” But no such thing happened. Sora was snoring softly now. Riku paced up and down. He set the water bottle next to the bed and then went to see if Kairi was asleep. She was. Frustrated, Riku took to pacing the living room. Surely Sora would have told Kairi if he had a crush. Well, probably.

_But can he really like me? Also he’s drunk, so maybe he would just say anything._

It wasn’t lining up in his mind. Why would Sora avoid him?

But a few things did make sense. Things that used to be ok just didn’t seem to be ok anymore—them dancing, or changing clothes, or sitting next to each other.

_Oh god, can that even be possible?_

It was getting late now, but Riku had too much nervous energy. He wiped down everything in the kitchen just to do something. He wished he had his workout equipment here. At least if it was during the day, he could go for a run. He ran his hands through his hair. _I should just go to bed._ He couldn’t decide where to sleep. Technically the large bed was his, and Sora made it seem like he didn’t want him to leave, but he imagined he would get punched or something if he crawled into the bed with his friend. He settled for the couch, which was closer than the bunk beds, and about as comfortable. He fell into a fitful sleep.

“Sora!” He bolted up when the sound of something woke him up. The amount of sunlight spilling in from the windows meant he slept in.

“It’s just me,” Kairi smiled. She was holding a suitcase.

“What..where are you going?” Riku asked confused.

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “Listen, I just feel really bad about last night, and I feel like you two need time alone.”

“No, no.” Riku got up too quickly, making spots dance in his vision. “That is the last thing we need right now.”

“I can always come back for the last few days, but I feel like nothing will get resolved if I stay, and he’s probably really mad at me.”

“But what about our trip?” he asked dumbly.

“We’re going to go on plenty of trips, you know that. You’re stuck with me for life.”

“I…wait, before you go, Sora said something weird last night.”

“What did he say?”

“He said that he likes me,” Riku said slowly.

Kairi stared blankly for a few seconds and then started laughing.

“Why are you laughing? Did he tell you he has a crush on me or something?”

Kairi waved her hand. “No, nothing like that. You should probably talk to him.”

“He _did_ tell you something, didn’t he?”

“I mean, kinda, but you really should just talk to him.”

“Well yeah, but he was probably rambling.”

Kairi narrowed her eyes slightly. “You think so?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’ll figure it out. I’ll call you when I get home.” She turned towards the door.

“You can stay, really.”

“I’m already leaving, just figure this out so we can all hang out again without feeling weird.”

_She felt weird too?_ “Alright.”

“And I bet you were really happy to hear him say that.” She stuck her tongue out and disappeared before Riku could say anything. _What is that supposed to mean? Did she...know that I have always liked Sora?_

Riku got up and got ready for the day, dreading facing Sora and unsure of how to act or what to say. He had just started watching some mystery TV program when Sora appeared, bed head going wild. “I’m so hungryyyy,” he complained. “Oh hey Riku.”

“Hey,” he replied cautiously.

“Do we have any fruit loops?” Sora began digging around in the kitchen.

“Uh, no, but we have—“

“Lucky charms! Score! Did you get these for me?” Sora beamed.

“Well, yeah,” Riku said sheepishly as Sora began pouring a huge bowl of cereal. He brought his breakfast over and sat down on the couch, watching the TV and eating with gusto.

_He’s acting so normal._ “Are you…mad?” Riku asked.

“Cause you and Kairi drugged me?” Sora asked, not missing a beat.

“We did not drug you.”

“Well the chocolate was pretty good.” He took a huge bite. “Where’s Kairi?”

“She left.”

That made him stop eating. “Left? What do you mean?”

“She went home.”

“Why??”

“She felt bad or something, I dunno.”

“Oh, for drugging me,” Sora nodded.

“For the last time, you were not drugged.”

Sora blew a raspberry and went back to his food. Riku stared at him, incredulously. “Um, Sora?”

“What?”

“How much from last night do you remember?”

“Uhhhh, we had a fire, and…I got mad and went to bed.”

“Oh ok.”

“Why, am I forgetting something?” Sora got up to dump his dish in the sink. “I should call Kairi and tell her to come back.” He glanced at Riku as if he was suddenly suspicious.

_Should I bring up what he said?_ Riku couldn’t decide.

Sora was feeling confused but was covering it up pretty well for once. He tried desperately to remember what had happened last night, but he mostly just remembered eating chocolate and getting upset. Had he said something stupid? Done something stupid? Is that why Riku kept watching him? And why would Kairi leave?

And a bigger thing. _Now I am going to be alone with Riku the whole time._ He left the room to call Kairi but she didn’t answer. _She’s probably driving._

“It’s your fault she had her car.”

Sora jumped a mile; Riku was standing behind him. “I didn’t do anything. Besides, what should we do today? Kairi was coming up with all the good ideas.”

“Whatever you want,” Riku said, feeling bad for many things.

“I want to go swimming.”

Riku sighed. “We can’t go swimming.”

“We can play mouse trap…or Mario kart…or go exploring and whack each other with sticks like we used to.”

They ended up doing all of that. Kairi called at some point, saying she made it home safely, and Sora demanded to know why she left. She said she needed some “space” but might come back up for the end of the week, despite the long drive.

“Space? What does that even mean?” Sora complained when they got off the phone.

“I dunno.”

“Did you see her leave? Did I do something?” Sora asked worried. “I was probably stupid last night, wasn’t I?”

“No, it’s nothing you did.”

“She wasn’t even here for very long,” Sora said sadly.

The guilt was threatening to consume Riku. He made to say something but Sora was pulling a comic out of his bag. “I think I’m just gonna go read by myself for a little bit,” he announced before disappearing.

_Damn it…_ Riku felt like everything was spiraling out of control and he needed to say something but he had no idea how to go about it. What if he HAD misheard Sora and was just going to make everything worse by saying something? What if Sora found out about Riku’s crush? Riku almost felt like he had taken advantage of being Sora’s close friend by never saying anything, considering Sora’s touchy nature. Heck, for a long time the kid had thought it was normal to share a bed.

Riku decided to go out on a run while sorting out these thoughts. The sun was just beginning to set but he knew the area well enough.

Sora was laying on the floor, staring at his comic but not reading it. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he made Kairi leave somehow. And it was getting more and more difficult to look at Riku. His friend seemed off today, for some reason. Like he was being overly careful.

“Ugh!” Sora laid face down, weakly punching the floor. _If only I had never liked Riku,_ he thought for the hundredth time _._

He got up slowly, realizing Riku had left a note saying he was going on a run. His stomach growled so he pulled out a bag of chips and settled to wait for Riku. It seemed colder than usual. He pulled on a hoodie and sat back down. Waiting. Waiting.

He shivered. “Why is it so cold?” He turned up the thermostat. “There we go.” Sat back down.

He had just started playing a game on his phone when Riku returned with a, “Hey.”

“Hey Riku! Can you make it warmer in here?”

“Huh, it is pretty cold.” He went to play with the thermostat before heating up some pasta for them. A few minutes passed by.

“Riku?”

“What?”

“It’s still cold.”

Riku tried to play with the thermostat again but nothing he did seemed to help, and neither of them were very handy. “Well, it’s after five, but I can call the number my dad left in the morning to get someone to come out and fix it.”

“We will literally freeze by then.”

“We will not.”

“It’s so cold, Riku.”

“You are always cold.” But even Riku felt a bit chilly.

They tried to distract themselves by each getting a blanket and watching a movie. Riku’s phone buzzed halfway through with a text from Kairi, **Did you talk to him yet?**

Riku scowled and wrote back, **No**

The second he looked away from his phone, it buzzed again, **I will talk to him myself if you come back without doing it.**

Sora looked over curiously. “Who’s texting you? No one texts you.”

“It’s just Kairi.”

“Let me see!” Sora lunged forward and went to grab the phone.

“Mind your own business.” Riku shoved him away and was surprised when Sora retreated, blushing. But it kept him from seeing his conversation with Kairi, so whatever. Riku quickly typed, **I’ll talk to him ok jeez.**

To which she replied, **Ok, good luck :)**

Riku shook his head and returned his focus to the movie. He was feeling fidgety again and seemed to have passed that nervousness to Sora who jumped up the second the credits were rolling. “Which bed is mine today?”

“Whatever you want, you can steal the blankets from whatever bed is unused.”

“Do you…do you want the big bed since you haven’t had it yet?”

“Sure, Sora,” Riku smiled weakly.

“Ok, g’night.”

Sora made a beeline for the bunk beds and made a cocoon out of blankets. He was still cold. He pulled his hoodie closer to him and closed his eyes.

Still cold and he couldn’t fall asleep.

He tiptoed to the other room. _Maybe Riku will have extra blankets that he isn’t using._

“Riku?” he knocked on the door lightly.

“Yeah?”

Sora entered. “I’m still cold.”

Riku sat up in the dark, his hair was pulled back in a ponytail and he was wearing a white t-shirt. “Did you take the blankets off the other bed?”

“Duh.”

“Uhhh, I don’t think there are any other blankets, sorry.”

“Can you make a fire or something?”

“No,” Riku said flatly. “There’s no fireplace.”

Sora turned to leave. “Oh ok, I’ll just—“

“Wait.” Riku was already kicking himself as the words were falling out of his mouth. “You could sleep in here?”

Sora froze. “What?”

“Just like we used to,” Riku said quickly.

“It’s not weird?” Sora’s heart sped up.

“I don’t think it’s weird. And then you won’t be cold.”

_Don’t say yes._ “Ok.”

Sora crawled into the bed. _It isn’t weird if Riku says it isn’t._

Riku pushed himself off to the side so that he wouldn’t be so close. Sora felt so much warmer immediately and wasn’t sure if it was due to Riku’s heat or his own embarrassment. Riku was already feeling bad, as if he was coercing or tricking his friend into sharing a bed with someone with bad intentions. _And I’ve done it before._ Riku’s stomach squirmed, but it settled slightly when he looked over at Sora, who looked incredibly happy.

“This is the most warm I have felt in hours.”

“That’s good,” Riku chuckled. _I’ll talk to him tomorrow, after the heat is fixed,_ Riku promised himself, closing his eyes.

Sora felt like he should be feeling more self-conscious but he was pretty tired and fell asleep quickly. Unfortunately when he woke up he wasn’t feeling as happy. He was still warm, yes, and extremely cozy, but as he finally pulled himself to consciousness, he noticed something. Well many things. The first being was that him and Riku were wrapped up together, his arms were around Riku and it felt like the older teen’s arms were also around him. When Sora’s eyes opened, he saw silver, which had to be Riku’s hair. He gave a strangled sound automatically and yanked away, abruptly waking his friend up.

“Huh?” Riku blinked. “What happened?”

“Nothing!” Sora said shrilly, already out of the bed.

Riku sat up. “Did you have a bad dream?”

“Nope! I’m gonna go take a shower!” He rushed away.

“Huh, I slept in again…” Riku muttered to himself. He decided to get up right away and make that phone call to get the heat fixed. Thankfully, the fix was easy and quick, and the repair man apologized profusely for the cold night.

That out of the way, Riku remembered his resolve from the night before, which had been so much easier when the prospect wasn’t staring him in the face. And Sora kept trying to get him to play smash brothers. Little did he know, Sora felt the least awkward when the pair were distracted with video games. After a few matches, Riku paused the game.

“We need to talk.”

“What? But I’m totally gonna beat you in the next match.”

“I…uh…” Riku was at a loss for words. This alone shocked Sora. Characters on the screen continued to clap, as if mocking Riku’s struggle, so he turned the TV off with a jab. This confused Sora more than ever.

“What’s up, Riku?”

The feeling of impending doom was increasing. “Um.” Riku cleared his throat. “Remember how you ate those chocolates?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, you said something, and I’m not sure if you remember it, or if I misheard you, or if you were sleep talking or what,” Riku rambled.

“Uh-huh?” Sora began to fidget and he wanted to look away from his friend but he couldn’t.

“Well, you uh, said that you like me, I know it sounds silly, just thought I would mention It, we can get back to smash—“

“What?” Sora paled.

“What?”

“ _What?_ ”

“Nothing, forget it,” Riku said quickly, regretting having said anything. Sora looked white as a sheet.

“I said that I like you?” Sora squeaked out.

“I mean, you said it while you were drunk and falling asleep, so it probably doesn’t mean anything, but Kairi kept saying we should talk.”

“Kept saying?”

“Well she said you were acting weird.”

“Oh.”

Riku didn’t know what to expect now but Sora wasn’t saying anything. And then he stood up. “I’m going for a swim.”

“Wait, Sora, you—“

Sora ran out of the cabin, with Riku in hot pursuit. “It’s too cold, Sora! Wait!”

Sora ignored him. He felt like reality was falling away from him. Why had he said that?? Riku didn’t need to know! And now his friend was clearly afraid of him or disguised or..or something!

Sora ran straight into the water, and it hit him hard. It was extremely cold. It bit at his body harshly but he needed to swim and this was the best thing he could get. He paddled harder, vaguely hearing Riku yelling behind him. He could only swim very briefly before he was shaking and Riku was dragging him out.

“You idiot!” Riku was shaking him. “You’re shivering like crazy! What’s wrong with you!”

“I dunno.”

Riku yanked him back inside and told him to change clothes. Sora only looked mortified at that but obliged once Riku left the room. Then Riku piled him into blankets on the couch. “I’m so cold,” Sora said, his teeth chattering.

“No duh.”

Riku was about to put something on the TV when Sora stopped him. “So like…what if..I did like you?” Sora said quietly.

Riku would have sworn his heart stopped again. _This guy has too much control over me, jesus. Also what is he trying to say??_ “Like more than a friend?”

Sora retreated further into his pile of blankets if that was even possible so that he was less visible. “Well yeah.”

“Um..I…” _Is he confessing??_ “I guess I would be…happy?”

“Happy??” Sora’s head popped back out, mouth agape like a fish.

“Should I not be happy?” Riku would have laughed if he hadn’t been so on edge.

“No…” Sora looked down and played with a string that was dangling off one of the blankets.

Riku leaned forward, startling Sora into blurting, “What??”

“I’ve liked you for a long time, Sora.”

Sora stared. And stared. And then said, “What?”

Riku just about fell off the couch. “Oh my god, Sora, I’ve had a crush on you since literally forever.”

“Really??”

“No, I take it back.” Riku rolled his eyes.

“So you..don’t think I’m weird?”

“Well you are weird, but you having some crush on me isn’t the part of you that’s weird.”

“Hey!”

Riku leaned back down onto the couch, relaxing. “Well now you can act normal again and not worry about it, ok?”

“Ok.” Sora’s tone was off. Riku looked over, and his friend was staring at his lap.

“…what’s wrong?”

“You’re not mad?”

“No.”

“I like you a lot.”

Riku was about to make some remark but he saw tears swimming in Sora’s eyes. _Shit._ “It’s ok, why are you crying?”

“I like you a lot.”

“I got that part.”

“So I can’t act normal. I can never act normal again.” The tears were now streaming down his cheeks.

“Is that why you’ve been upset?”

He nodded.

“Jeez…” Riku scratched his head. “I don’t mind that you like me, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“Ok,” Sora said weakly, feeling foolish for always crying so easily. But it had been eating at him this entire time.

“I mean, if you wanted to,” Riku said slowly, “we could date?” He was starting to feel dizzy at the prospect. He couldn’t believe it. It couldn’t be real. Sora liked him.

“Date?”

“If we both like each other, I don’t see why not.”

Sora sat back, chewing on his lip in thought. “I never thought about it.”

“Well, thanks,” Riku said sarcastically.

“You would want to date me?” Sora asked hopefully.

“Oh my gosh Sora.” Riku shook his head. This was going nowhere.

“What?”

Riku briefly thought about kissing his friend, but thought it might shock him too much, so instead he pushed himself into the blankets until they were both sitting right next to each other, huddled in the warmth. He pulled Sora into a hug. Sora stiffened at first but then relaxed.

“Will you date me?”

Sora nodded. Riku felt the movement and smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I finally figured out how to use this website (not that it's hard, just never used it before). So hopefully none of my formatting moving forward will be wonky! I'm also looking at all these cute emoticons and now I want to use them everywhere haha (◕‿◕✿)  
> Also, what characters do you think Sora and Riku would use in smash bros? I couldn't decide.  
> Thanks for reading and all the lovely comments/kudos! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I had fun with it~ (^.~)☆


	5. Everything Has Changed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting this a bit early since the rest of my week is completely packed. Enjoy! Also this chapter is a little spicy (solely saying this so I can laugh at the term spicy, this chapter very much reflects the dumb stuff I laugh at haha). (^ ‿ ^ ) ~~♡

They texted Kairi, saying, **We’re dating now** , to which she replied with a string of party related emojis. They stared down at it. “Do you think she knew?” Sora asked.

“Probably.”

“Well, what do we do now?”

Sora was warm enough now to have discarded the blanket pile; it became a messy heap on the floor. Riku, to his embarrassment, was acutely aware that they were alone in a secluded cabin. “What do you want to do?”

“Hmm..is there anything we usually do that we haven’t yet?”

“We haven’t told scary stories yet.”

“That’s what _you_ do,” Sora shot back.

Riku chuckled. That evening they set up another fire and Sora tentatively asked if he could hold Riku’s hand.

“Are you going to ask for every little thing?”

“The only person I have dated is Kairi!”

“I’ve never dated anyone.”

“Oh yeah,” Sora said thoughtfully.

“You’ll have to show me how it’s done,” Riku smirked.

“How what is done?” Sora squeaked.

“Like how to kiss. You and Kairi kissed.”

“That barely counted!”

Riku laughed, enjoying the flustered Sora. Sora pretended to pout for a while before reaching out.

Riku looked at it with a, “What?”

“Hand,” Sora muttered.

Riku did as he was told, and both of them felt happier than they had in a long time. And nervous. Very very nervous.

_We’re just holding hands,_ Sora thought.

_We’ve done this before,_ Riku thought.

But it felt entirely different now that they were dating.

Sora was trying not to worry about whether his hand felt clammy or not, and suddenly asked, “I can call you my boyfriend?”

“Yeah.” Riku fought the urge to roll his eyes.

“What about best friend?”

“You can call me both.”

“Oh ok,” Sora said, like he was relieved. “So were you going to tell your stories?”

“Of course,” Riku grinned before launching off. The stories wouldn’t be scary to most people, but Sora was scared easily, and he had been hearing these stories his whole life, so they were built up and stubbornly stuck in his head. He heard stories about ghosts, demons, how people had died at this very lake, all the usual stuff. Sora gripped Riku’s hand harder as time went on.

“…and then she turned—oh my god, Sora, you are going to break my hand.”

“Sorry,” Sora said sheepishly. “Maybe that’s enough scary stories for now.”

“Alright,” Riku agreed.

They looked up at the stars; the sky was packed with a scattering of tiny lights, and a few wispy clouds were rolling through. Sora wished they could sit closer together but the camp chairs wouldn’t allow that, so their clasped hands hung between them. Sora felt so relieved that he didn’t have to hide his feelings anymore; it had been beyond exhausting. While he truthfully hadn’t considered dating his friend, that was only because the feelings had come up so suddenly and had been such a distraction, all by themselves; besides, he had never thought that Riku could have harbored a crush on him and for so long. It was amazing. It made Sora’s stomach do happy flips. Riku, for his part, was still reeling from the day, his mind constantly repeating that Sora _likes me, likes me enough to date me, and now we are holding hands and not in the totally-casual don’t-fall-I’ll-hold-on-to-you-for-a-bit way._ He never thought that could be a reality.

They spent a good deal of time silently star-gazing, each bubbling up with positive emotions, before heading back inside. “Who gets what bed today?” Sora asked.

“Oh, I thought we could…nevermind.”

“We can share the big bed?” Sora asked hopefully.

“Sure,” Riku smiled.

They climbed into bed, still carefully keeping to their sides. “This feels weird, huh? How we’re dating now?” Sora said into the dark.

“Yeah but it’s nice.”

“Mhm.”

“Can I kiss you tomorrow?”

“Why not today?”

“We just started dating!”

Sora laughed. “Alright.” In reality, Riku felt too nervous to do it right now, but he wanted to do it soon. He had imagined kissing Sora so long ago, and he didn’t want to mess it up. _That would be easy to mess up, wouldn’t it? Won’t our noses get in the way? How do you get so close?? Should I wait for a specific kind of moment?? Like what kind of moment? Agh, stop thinking about it._

“Good night, Sora.”

“G’night, Riku!”

Again, they woke up in each other’s arms, but it was different this time. For one, Riku woke up first. He watched Sora sleep, astounded by his luck. When Sora began to stir, Riku nuzzled back into the top of Sora’s head. Sora basked in the feeling of cuddling someone. It was warm and safe. And has he mentioned that Riku smells amazing?

He pulled back slightly, yawning. “Morning.”

“Morning.”

“Can we do this forever?”

Riku chuckled. “I don’t think so.”

“Should we call Kairi today? We only have three more days out here.”

Riku kinda wanted it to just be the two of them, but conceded; the plan was for the three of them to be here in the first place, so they decided to call her after breakfast. Things were normal aside from sharing a bed again, and little things that Sora took to be…flirting? A thrill went through him at the thought.

“Hello?”

“Kairi!” Sora burst.

“Hey, Sora, what’s up?”

“We were wondering if you were going to come back up?”

“Oh, yeah, I dunno. I don’t want to rain on your love bird parade.”

“It’s not a parade,” Riku cut in.

Kairi laughed. “Oh hey, Riku. I mean, I sort of want to head back up, but also the drive is a bit killer. Also I was thinking I could throw some big summer parties for us anyway. But either way you two owe me.”

“Why?” Sora asked.

“I cut my vacation short because of your lover’s quarrel!”

“No such thing! And you’re the one who drugged me!”

“Oh my god, Sora, she did not drug you. He is never going to let that go.”

“Sorry about that,” Kairi apologized. “But really, you two should have fun. Also, there is a drugstore a little bit down the mountain if you need to buy cond—“

“Well it was nice talking to you,” Riku interrupted.

“Ok, I’ll talk to you guys later. I’m super happy for you guys,” she giggled.

After they hung up, Sora asked, “Why would we need to buy condiments?”

“In case we decide to eat hot dogs.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

They spent the day lounging around like usual. Riku was trying to figure out the best time to kiss Sora. It never seemed like a good time because they were always concentrating on something, or eating, or play fighting. But Riku really really wanted to kiss him.

As they were covering a pizza with toppings to put into the oven, Sora seemed to be flirting, so Riku decided it was time. He was talking about how muscular Riku is and how he needed to show him how he could build muscle too. He was going on about this while sprinkling cheese. Riku tapped him on the shoulder, and once he turned, pressed his lips against Sora’s, and then quickly pulled away, blushing, his mind thinking, _Oh god oh god I kissed Sora._

Sora stared. “…did you just kiss me?”

“No.”

“I was still talking!” Sora pretended to be mad, but he looked happy.

“Well, sorry, please continue.”

“But the kiss was too fast.”

“It doesn’t seem like you wanted it.” Riku stuck his tongue out.

“Let me just get the pizza in the oven and then we can continue.”

_Continue?_ Riku thought. _What’s that supposed to mean? Like..more...?_

Sora gave him a mischievous smile after taking care of the pizza and stalked off to the couch. Riku hopelessly followed behind. _My boyfriend is too cute._

Sora sat down. “Ok, you can kiss me again,” he said dramatically.

“Oh what an honor.”

Riku leaned forward nervously. Sora was pretty sure he would explode soon; he closed his eyes and clenched his fists. “You make it look like I’m going to hurt you,” Riku commented.

“Will you just do it already!”

“You are like, the least romantic person I know.”

Sora’s eyes flew open. “I am very romantic!”

Riku cocked an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Prove it.”

“I will!” Sora scooted closer to Riku, his heart hammering. “Close your eyes.” Riku complied. Sora brought his face even closer. _Why are Riku’s eyelashes so long? And his hair—_

“Are you going to do anything?”

“Yes! Don’t rush me!” Sora gave Riku a peck, much like Riku had done moments before.

Riku’s eyes opened. “Very good job.” He reached out a hand to ruffle Sora’s hair.

“Don’t mock me.”

“I’m not,” Riku said seriously. There was a look on his face that Sora had never seen before and it made a spark roll around in his chest. Riku moved his hand down from Sora’s hair to cup his face. Sora was about to say something, but Riku had already pulled him forward into another kiss. This kiss was more than a peck. Sora felt himself go limp as Riku moved his lips against his. It was warm and soft, and it felt really really good, but Sora was preoccupied, worried he was doing something wrong.

Riku wasn’t worried for once. Something had taken over him, making him move almost instinctively. He felt like it would be trouble in the future. He felt like he wanted to press harder, wanted to press Sora down into the couch, wanted to open his mouth—

But no, that would be too much, too fast. Riku forced himself to pull away, breathing heavily despite the chaste kiss. Sora’s eyes were big and shiny, cheeks red. “You’re too cute for your own good,” Riku muttered.

“We should kiss like that again.” Sora was already leaning forward.

Riku held his arms out, catching his eager boyfriend. “Uh, not right now.”

“Why not?” Sora asked, hurt.

“The pizza will be done soon.”

“Will not,” Sora pouted.

“How about, I’ll give you another kiss if you let us watch that new horror movie?”

“That is not enough incentive to watch that gore fest!”

“How about three kisses?”

“Ten!”

“Ten??”

Sora grinned as if he had already won. “Four,” Riku said flatly.

“I dunno.”

“They can be longer.”

“Deal!” Sora skipped back to the kitchen.

“I have created a monster.”

The pizza was delicious, even though Sora had tried to destroy it with a huge amount of toppings, but the movie was terrible. Well, Riku thought it was bad, while Sora clearly thought it was terrifying. He kept putting his hands over his eyes when he anticipated a jump scare, but he always ended up looking and jumping anyway. Riku laughed and teased him like always.

“You should be more sympathetic!” Sora complained as they got ready for bed. He hadn’t wanted to go into the bathroom alone, so Riku was standing in the doorway, watching him brush his teeth. “I’m your boyfriend!” He spat a gob of toothpaste into the sink aggressively.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Ok, but Riku, they came out of mirrors and there is a mirror in here. It is only reasonable that I don’t want to brush my teeth by myself.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Bathrooms are always a bad thing!” Sora shivered. “Ok we can go to bed now. I won’t even make you keep a night light on.”

_Did he forget about the deal?_ Riku thought. _Well, sweet, I’m not sure if my heart could handle any more today._

But apparently he hadn’t forgotten, or at least maybe had only momentarily forgotten, because he bounded forward and sat on the bed. “Kiss time!”

“Are you five?” Riku couldn’t help saying. His boyfriend seriously looked like an expectant child.

Sora responded by chucking a pillow at his head, which was caught easily. “Keep your end of the deal, jerk.”

“I’m a jerk now?” Riku raised an eyebrow. “You can’t make me kiss you.”

Sora frowned. “But..don’t you want to?”

Riku backpedaled. “Of course, I’m just teasing you.”

“Oh ok,” Sora said brightly, already happy again.

Riku settled in front of him, swallowing nervously. This seemed ten times more dangerous on a bed. “How many was it again?”

“Ten!”

“It was not.”

“It was four.”

“Alright.” Riku pressed his lips against Sora’s for a second then pulled away.

“They’re supposed to be longer.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re annoying?”

Sora blinked. “Yeah, why?”

“No reason.” Riku leaned forward until Sora backed further up onto the bed. “Lay down.”

“Oh…ok.” Sora complied nervously.

_Maybe if I give him really good kisses, he’ll stop being so demanding,_ Riku thought. _Not that I know how._

Sora was laying underneath him, looking up. Riku situated himself so that his legs were pressed against the bed, but he wasn’t actually touching Sora that much. He pressed his lips against Sora’s again; perhaps too quickly because Sora made a strange squeak sound. He pressed slightly harder than before. _Oh this feels so strange, to actually be kissing Sora, my best friend…_ He smelled like he always did: the ocean, plus something that smelled really good, intoxicating almost, but it didn’t have a name. It was just Sora.

Sora felt like he was tingling all over. He was a little less nervous now; it helped that Riku was doing most of the work. He also figured if he got a lot of kisses now, he would learn how the heck to do it and then he wouldn’t be so worried. Riku had stopped moving and then pulled away. “One.”

“Out of four.”

Riku continued. Sora’s lips were parted this time, probably because he had just been talking, instead of stiffly held closed, so Riku decided to go for it. He pushed his tongue into Sora’s mouth, and Sora violently jerked away, sputtering. “What the heck, Sora?” Riku asked annoyed.

“You what the heck! You put your tongue in my mouth!”

“Uh, yeah, or did you want me to just keep my lips there forever?”

Sora looked at him suspiciously. “What do you mean?” Riku was getting tired of holding himself up, so he sat up instead.

“Didn’t you want to make out?”

“Make out?” Sora asked blankly. _You nativity still manages to surprise me sometimes._

“Like in the movies, when they move their heads around.”

“…they’re putting their tongues in each other’s mouths?”

“Yes.”

Sora stared. “That’s so weird.”

“Yeah, well, are you done demanding kisses now?”

Sora considered this. The tongue had caught him off guard, but he had liked everything else. But if he backed out now, it was like giving up. “You promised four.”

“Did that one just now count?”

“Hmm…I guess.”

“So two more?”

“Yep!”

“What kind of kiss do you want?”

“Oh…just do what you want.”

“I’m gonna try again then.”

“Alright,” Sora said nervously. Now he was sitting up against the headboard, legs crossed over each other. He was wearing his old pajamas with a star pattern, and an expectant look still hovered on his face. It seemed so odd given the context.

Riku pressed his lips against Sora’s again. Sora was tenser this time, despite the less compromising position. His lips, naturally, were firmly closed again. Riku stayed where he was for a few seconds, enjoying the feeling, before doing anything new. He gently probed at Sora’s mouth with his tongue. Sora made a weird sound in his throat. Riku kept probing until Sora’s lips parted and then just as gently, he slipped his tongue inside.

It was such a small step, but it was heavenly. Well for Riku. Sora still felt weird about it. Riku moved his tongue against Sora’s. As strange as it sounds, he couldn’t help thinking that Sora tasted…good. Underneath the lingering traces of toothpaste.

Riku decided that that was probably enough and separated. Sora was staring at him, his cheeks flushed and his mouth still slightly open. Riku cleared his throat and Sora snapped out of it. “Ok, that was..um..how many was that?”

“One more.”

“Oh ok.”

This time Riku moved closer, so that their bodies were pressed against each other. He immediately regretted this decision because now he felt like he never wanted to move away; plus Sora had made what sounded suspiciously like a moan and the small sound alone drove Riku crazy. He kissed his boyfriend again, immediately slipping his tongue back inside. _We’re done after this,_ Riku thought to himself, to try to keep some part of him grounded in reality. He moved his tongue against Sora’s, wishing Sora would move as well. As if he had heard Riku’s thoughts, Sora moved his tongue too, rubbing it back slightly. Riku shivered and pressed closer to Sora if that was possible. He dug his hands into the bed cover while they continued to move their tongues together. After a few more moments, Riku pulled himself away. Sora was breathing heavily, and Riku wasn’t sure if this was good or bad. He decided to just ask.

“Was that ok?”

“Oh, yeah,” Sora smiled, as if they hadn’t just been making out.

“Cool, well, um, bed?”

“I’m not sleepy now, but I guess we should.” Sora stretched then slipped under the covers. Riku followed suit, turning the light off. Sora wrapped his arms around Riku immediately.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” Riku said.

“How?!”

“Nevermind, go to sleep.”


	6. Friends Forever

Riku felt oddly cold. He opened his eyes, his hand already blindly searching for the blankets but coming up empty. He sat up and discovered that was he was near the edge of the bed. Sora was sprawled out with his legs and arms out, smiling in his sleep, all the blankets on top of him. He was a notorious blanket stealer since he was always cold; Riku just hadn’t dealt with it in a long time.

The older teen smirked, hooking his hand on the edge of the pile and yanking until he too could partake. Sora blinked up at the ceiling. Riku pulled the blankets again so that they slid completely off his boyfriend. “Hey,” Sora mumbled in protest. His shirt had ridden up in his sleep, exposing a good section of his torso, and Riku felt an abrupt surge of embarrassment, quickly throwing the blankets back. He had, clearly, seen Sora in various states of dress before, but it seemed different now that they were dating.

Sora smiled, not noticing Riku’s rare red face, and closed his eyes again.

Light snoring filled the room, making Riku shake his head. _How does he always fall asleep so fast?_ Riku got up and started his day; Sora only got up once the smell of bacon reached his nose. They spent the majority of the day down at the lake; everything was fine for a while. They played a game that they had invented previously that was kind of like beach volleyball, and strolled around (Sora looking for crabs which clearly weren’t here). They paused, and Riku found himself staring at the still water. It was so different from the crashing waves of the ocean. Sora kicked his shoes off and pressed his feet into the sand. “So like…” he said suddenly.

“What?” Riku turned towards him. Sora had squatted down, arms wrapped around his legs.

“If we break up, will we not be friends anymore?”

This caught Riku off guard. For one, Sora was never the type to worry about things, he was always relatively untroubled and cheerful. “No, we’ll still be friends.”

“Really? Will that be possible?”

“I can’t see us ever not being friends. You’re stuck to me like some kind of fly.”

“Well,” Sora huffed, “you’re stuck like….glue?”

“And you’re still terrible at insults.”

Sora jumped up, cheeks puffed out and worries gone as Riku stroked his competitive spirit. They were both too competitive for their own good at times. “I could insult you all day! You..uh….look like you belong in a Hot Topic!” Sora pointed at Riku’s black jeans.

Riku held back his laughter. “You hurt me so.”

“I’m not done!” Riku was walking closer to the water, Sora following. “You’re not as cool as you think you are! And, um, your muscles are…stupid.”

Now Riku was laughing. Sora took a large step forward and shoved him as hard as he could. Riku didn’t even move. Sora put both his hands on Riku’s shoulders and pushed and pushed. “Will you…just…move??”

Riku crossed his arms over his chest, amused. “I planted my feet, you’re not going to be able to move me.”

“But it’s sand!”

“We grew up on a beach, dummy.”

Sora dropped his arms, thoughtful, and then he backed away a few yards. Riku watched him. The brunette stuck his tongue out in concentration, leaning forward and bending at the knees, before breaking out in a sprint. He made a beeline for Riku, who was not prepared for over a hundred pounds of human hurtling himself straight at him. Riku stumbled at the impact, sand slipping out from under his feet until he fell over backwards with an OOF sound.

The tackle had worked the way Sora had wanted, based off his grin. “I got you to move!”

Riku was laying in the sand, Sora on top of him, still grinning like a maniac. “I guess you did,” Riku conceded.

“That should be at least ten points for me.”

“Are you keeping score?”

“I was, but I forgot our last scores. So we can just reset at zero to ten!”

“Psh, I have earned way more than that today alone.”

“No way.” They chuckled. Sora was becoming acutely aware of their positions as his victory faded in his mind. He was getting ready to get up, but Riku was staring at him. It made him feel self-conscious beyond belief; a smile was playing on his lips and there was something in his face that Sora hadn’t seen before.

“…what?” Sora asked. “Why are you staring at me?”

“No reason,” Riku said softly. “You’re just really cute.”

Sora threw himself up, waving his arms. “C-Cute?”

Riku stood up too. “You can’t call a boy cute,” Sora continued, obviously flustered.

“I think I just did.”

“Hey!” Sora’s face suddenly brightened. “That means I can say whatever I’m thinking now!” This had suddenly occurred to him.

“I don’t follow.” The pair started to walk back to the cabin.

“Lately I’ve been thinking really weird things.” Sora nodded solemnly.

Riku’s eyes flitted to the side to look at his boyfriend. “Like what?”

“Like stuff about you. Like how you thought that I’m cute!”

“Like?”

“Like..nevermind!” Sora ran off, but Riku didn’t really need any examples. Sora was pretty transparent, even when he had been trying to hide things; he had caught the brunette’s eyes lingering on him more than once, but until now he had chalked it up to Sora being jealous of his physique.

The next day was Saturday, their last full day at the cabin, and Sora insisted on taking a short trip into the nearby town to buy a souvenir for Kairi to say sorry. Despite the fact that she had been here before, several times; Sora dragged his boyfriend in and out of stores before settling on a teddy bear of all things. “Doesn’t she have enough stuffed animals?” Riku asked skeptically as Sora waved the bear around.

“But he’s so cute!”

“You make it sound like you want him.”

Sora hugged the plush to himself protectively. “No, he’s for Kairi.” Riku waited, bored, while Sora bought it and then dragged him back outside to continue their trek. “I’ve named him Mr. Wiggles.”

“Sora,” Riku said flatly.

“What?” Sora was doing that dumb thing he did where he took exaggerated steps in order to avoid cracks in the sidewalk, swinging his arms—and thus, the bear—violently.

“You can’t name him.”

“Why not?”

“Let Kairi name him.”

“She’ll like the name.”

Riku rolled his eyes even though he know Kairi would just accept whatever name Sora had given it. Once they were back, Sora set Mr. Wiggles in a corner of the couch and they held a celebratory feast to mark the end of their trip, like they always did. Sora, balancing a plate on his lap and shoveling rice in his mouth, said, “This is the weirdest vacation we have ever had, huh?”

“Yeah I guess so,” Riku agreed.

“What are we going to tell people when we get back?”

Riku paused, thinking back to their weird make out session automatically; they had only given each other pecks since then, Sora already in the habit of randomly kissing Riku on the cheek. “Um..” He coughed, having swallowed the wrong way. “What do you want to say?”

“We should tell them that we’re dating, right?”

“Yeah? I’m not sure how well my parents would take it.”

“My parents won’t care,” Sora said around a large mouthful of food.

“Of course they won’t, they don’t even care when you sneak stray dogs into your house.”

“You could wait until you move out?”

Riku was planning to just attend a community college after graduation, while working odd jobs. He wouldn’t admit it was because he didn’t want to move away from Sora and Kairi, especially since they had a year left of high school. His grades were stellar, so he could go wherever he wanted, but he figured it could wait. He was especially happy with this decision now that he and Sora were a thing.

“Ugh, I don’t wanna think about it right now.” Riku got up to do the dishes.

“What about at school?”

Riku could already see Sora telling literally anyone who would listen. And that was a lot of people, considering how popular Sora was. “Maybe just tell people if it comes up or if they ask?”

“Alright.”

They settled back on the couch, mindlessly flipping through YouTube. Riku started making a comment about how stupid it is to add water to a grease fire when Sora shoved his face like an inch away from Riku’s.

“Hi,” Riku breathed.

Sora gave him a light kiss, both of their eyes still open. Riku didn’t say anything and Sora felt like he was going to fall off the couch so he half climbed onto his boyfriend’s lap. Riku was surprised but readjusted so that they would both be more comfortable.

“Hi!” Sora said happily.

Riku kissed Sora this time, their eyes closing. This sensation was still extremely new and foreign, and powerful in a way. The older teen pressed a series of kisses on Sora’s mouth, making him giggle. Sora threw his arms around Riku’s neck, pulling him closer. Riku couldn’t help himself, he kissed harder, slipping his tongue inside. Sora responded immediately, moving in turn. After a few moments, Sora tentatively pushed his tongue into Riku’s mouth.

Sora pulled away, with a weird look on his face. “What?” Riku asked.

“I licked your teeth!” Sora burst, mortified.

“Well, yeah, I have teeth.” Riku rolled his eyes.

Sora paused, clearly running his tongue over his own teeth. “I think you’re better at this, Riku.”

“No, we’re both terrible.”

Sora laughed, and Riku took the opportunity to continue kissing. This time Sora successfully got his tongue into Riku’s mouth—and past his teeth—and seemed to be getting really into it. Their lips were making little smacking sounds and Riku had instinctively began sucking on Sora’s tongue, making both of them feel faint and giddy. But then several things happened at once.

There was a clink sound, Sora toppled to the floor, hand over his mouth, and Riku’s eyes caught onto the large eyes of Mr. Wiggles, _Oh god this thing has been watching us and soon he’s gonna be in Kairi’s room._ They both had a strange sensation echoing through their teeth. Riku pulled Sora to his feet. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, but what happened??”

“I think we hit our teeth together.”        

Sora stared, his hand still raised towards his mouth. “That happens?”

Riku shrugged. “I guess so.”

“Will that happen all the time?”

“No, we’ll get better at it.”

Sora finally dropped his hand. “Has Kairi made out with anyone? Maybe she could help.”

Riku looked at him warily. “She would make fun of us forever if you told her about this.”

“I guess you’re right.” Sora threw himself back at his boyfriend with a smile but Riku remained unnerved by Mr. Wiggles, so he lifted Sora up and carried him to the bedroom.

“Hey!” Sora kicked slightly. “Why can you pick me up so easily?”

Riku tossed him on the bed. “You don’t weigh that much.”

“Ok but still!”

Riku climbed on top of him, resuming their kissing. Sora punched him halfheartedly to express his annoyance but was enthusiastically kissing back. Riku wasn’t sure how long this lasted, but again he was the one to end it, afraid it would get more heated. Sora had the audacity to whine at him, but he pointed out that they had a long drive the next day and should get some rest.

It was a bit sad to leave but they would surely be back at some point. The drive was extremely normal; Sora had his feet up on the dash, pile of sweets on his lap, talking a mile a minute while rock music played (Riku had banned the Disney) and Riku focused on the road, mostly humming in response. A part of him was afraid that their lives would return to normal the second they returned; that their “dating” would only exist in that cabin, but this fear was unfounded. Sora kissed Riku’s cheek before climbing out of his truck. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow! I’m going to visit Kairi tonight!”

Sora was already dragging his stuff away and Riku thought, _I wonder what the hell he is going to tell her._

Sora stepped into his house, yelling, “Hi mom!”

“Hi, Sora. How was your trip?” Sora’s mom had a kind, plump face, and was always wearing some kind of beach paraphernalia, usually seashells. Sora’s family largely consisted of easygoing beach bums, and his mom was no exception; everyone liked her and her friendly nature.

"It was great!” Sora hugged his mom. “Me and Riku are dating now!”

His mom looked taken aback for a split second. “Oh..that’s very nice.”

Sora took his stuff to his room which of course was extremely messy, and his mom followed. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“Oh of course not, you know I love Riku.”

Sora grinned.

She continued, “But if you ever need advice or protection, just ask me or your father.”

Sora cocked his head to the side. “Protection from what?”

His mom started laughing. “Never mind.”

Sora gave her a suspicious look. “You’re weird, mom. Anyway, once I’m unpacked, I’m gonna go to Kairi’s.”

The sun was setting by the time he set off for Kairi’s house. His friend was 100% excited to hear about the week; meanwhile Riku was staring at his ceiling, thinking about Sora and how many people he would tell his new relationship status to by the end of tomorrow.

Sora let himself into Kairi’s house and bounded up the stairs to her room to find her sitting at her desk, typing something on her keyboard.

“Kairi!” He threw himself at her, hugging her tightly.

“Hey.” She hugged him back and then fidgeted with a hair tie on her wrist. “Before you tell me everything, I just wanted to say sorry again.”

“Why?” Sora sat on her pink bed, setting a bag that held Mr. Wiggles on the floor.

“For bringing that alcohol and trying to get you to talk about whatever was bothering you. You just…I’m used to you just like, spewing everything on your mind at me, so I was worried I guess. And it was also super annoying to have my two best friends acting weird.”

“It’s alright.” Sora scratched his head. “Sorry for worrying you.”

“I knew what was bothering you, but it didn’t seem like my place to say.”

“Wait…you did?”

“Oh come on, Sora.” She spun around in her desk chair. “Why do you think I broke up with you?”

“But..but that was years ago!” Sora sputtered.

“And Riku was shooting me death glares the whole time! I don’t even think he noticed he was doing that.”

“He was?” Sora asked incredulously.

“You have to admit the two of you were always weirdly close.”

“We’re close too! All three of us are.”

Kairi stared him down. “Well yes, but you boys shoot like, platonic vibes at me. I could wear an inch long skirt and neither of you would blink.”

Sora was offended. “I would at least blink a little.”

Kairi burst out laughing, just like Sora’s mom had just done. “So are you both gay, or what?”

“Oh, hmmm,” Sora tapped his chin. “We didn’t talk about it.”

“You didn’t?”

 “Nope! I don’t think it matters anyway.”

“I guess not. I always thought Riku was gay and you were bi, though.”

The surprises kept coming. “Kai, are you serious? Why have we never talked about this?”

“Why should I say something that you two haven’t even realized?” Kairi giggled.

“You jerk.”

“Anyway, now we can talk all about you and Riku!” she said gleefully, putting her hands up in some kind of fangirling gesture, which made the bangles on her arm jingle.

He told her everything, including things that happened before the trip, and carefully leaving out a few details that would embarrass Riku like their teeth clinking. She was an attentive listener, and she only laughed when Sora said he had ran straight out of Riku’s house when realizing his feelings.

“I’m actually so glad I left,” she concluded. “But,” she pointed him, “you’re making it up to me.”

“How?”

“Those parties I mentioned,” Kairi said happily.

“That doesn’t seem very hard.”

“You have to get Riku to come.”

“For like five minutes?”

“The whole time!”

Sora stared. “How am I going to do that? He hates parties.”

“You’ll figure it out. By then he’ll probably be wrapped around your little finger. Besides, it has always been easier for you to get him to do stuff than for me.”

Sora wasn’t sure what that meant but let it go. She continued, “I’m planning for like a week after graduation. I know he isn’t going to have his own graduation party so this will be a stand in.”

“Alright, alright,” Sora groaned. “But guess what!”

“What?”

He pulled the stuffed bear out of his bag with a grand flourish. “Introducing…Mr. Wiggles!”

Kairi took it, smiling. “Oh thanks, Sora.”

Sora beamed. “Do you like his name?”

She nodded and put the bear on her bed with her other plushies. “So are you and Riku going to be all cuddly tomorrow at school?”

“Oh, I don’t know.”

Kairi shook her head. “Did you guys talk at all or did you just make out the whole time?”

“Hey, we did plenty of stuff!”

Kairi snorted. “Well maybe you guys should keep it on the down low. People already don’t like Riku.”

“I’ll never understand that.” Sora flopped down backwards onto the bed, staring straight up. “He’s so nice.”

“To us. I’m just saying, people might take it the wrong way. Especially since everyone loves you.”

“They would clearly be happy for me!”

“Will you just listen to me for once?” Kairi kicked him with her foot.

“Fine, fine, stop kicking me.”

They lounged around for a bit before Sora headed back home. Each friend in the trio had different feelings at the prospect of going to school: Sora was excited despite being told not to say anything, Riku was low-key dreading it because he was sure Sora would end up telling _everyone_ , and Kairi was looking forward at the opportunity to tease the two as often as possible.


	7. You're Going Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor warning for homophobic language/slurs. And sorry to anyone who really likes the character, they made an easy target. .･ﾟﾟ･(／ω＼)･ﾟﾟ･. Thanks for reading~ ❤

The morning was boring and uneventful. Sora was used to not seeing Riku often while at school; Riku was taking all the “smart people” classes while Sora was in the “normal people” classes (Sora’s words). He did have a few classes with Kairi, however, and their lunch period was at the same time. It was perhaps a good thing that he hadn’t had the chance to be too talkative that day since class had been busy and he was still excited about everything that had happened over spring break.

He was sitting next to Kairi, having already finished his lunch, fiddling with his phone. A friend had showed him this game where you take pictures of cute cats and he was finally getting the hang of it. “Look!” He showed his phone to Kairi. “I have _two_ cats right now!”

“Awwww.”

He went back to playing. Their table was completely packed as usual. People always flocked to Sora, but he always let Kairi sit next to him. Typically Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka sat with them too, and a variety of other classmates. Today was no exception. Sora was ignoring their chatter until something caught his attention.

“…ohmygosh, I heard that too! I was so surprised!” Selphie was gushing.

“Heard what?” Sora asked.

“You know the rock star, Demyx?”

Sora nodded.

“Well, over the weekend, he came out as—“

Wakka cut her off with a sneer. “A fag.”

“What’s that?” Sora asked and for some reason Kairi stomped on his foot. The look on her face screamed no but Sora had no idea why. Perhaps he should have googled it instead of asking, because that always seemed to invite teasing. And he had just learned how to properly google stuff on his phone, so he really should get some practice in.

But that was too late; he had already asked. “Sora, are you for real?” Tidus laughed.

“It means he’s gay,” Selphie explained. “Now I’m pretty sure all those past pictures with those guys were actually his boyfriends.”

“It’s disgusting.” Wakka continued to sneer. Sora felt himself grinding his teeth together and Kairi shot him a worried look.

“Will you shut up, Wakka.” Tidus waved his hand at his friend as if he was being ridiculous.

“It’s true.”

Sora, with no volition, jumped out of his chair, pure hot anger spreading over him. Kairi said something but he couldn’t hear her. “What’d you say?” he asked roughly, his voice loud. His thoughts were on Riku, and the fact that Wakka was implying that Riku was _disgusting._

Wakka looked up, almost lazily, while everyone else seemed on edge. “I just called that Demyx guy a disgusting fag because he is.”

Sora threw himself around the table, possibly elbowing someone in the process, and grabbed Wakka by his shirt, yanking him up. “Take. That. Back.”

“Whoa, dude.” Wakka smiled. “Why are you so defensive over someone you don’t know?”

“Take. It. Back.” Sora snarled.

Kairi didn’t know what to do. Sora rarely got angry, and certainly not this fast. It was frightening. The look on Sora’s face was…almost unrecognizable. And it didn’t seem like a smart move to instigate a fight with one of the best athletes in the school, and while there were teachers in the room. She understood why he was mad, heck she was pissed herself, but she couldn’t bear the thought that Wakka was probably about to wipe the floor with her best friend.

“Stop!” She jumped up too.

Sora ignored her, staring at Wakka’s calm face as he continued to talk. “You act as if _you’re_ a fag. Or maybe it’s your friend—“

The anger rose, threatening to choke him. Sora shoved Wakka away, already balling his fists. His fist connected with Wakka’s cheek, and the larger teen finally looked surprised. Unfortunately, Sora had never punched anyone, and it had immediately hurt his hand. “You little shit,” Wakka grumbled. He recoiled towards Sora and Sora was conscious enough to duck and dodge. Voices were echoing throughout the room, some of them egging them on, and some of them yelling stop. Sora clenched his fist again but never made contact because Wakka had easily punched him back. The pain hit Sora hard, and stars danced in his eyes. He still wasn’t done, however; he gave Wakka a dirty look and moved forward—

But he was stopped by something pink. _What?_

“Stop it,” Kairi begged. She was shielding Sora’s body with her own, facing towards Wakka with her arms spread out.

“Get out of the way,” Wakka spat. “Your friend has a death wish.”

A teacher was now jogging over and the other teens had come to their senses. Tidus grabbed onto Wakka angrily and started dragging him away. Wakka frowned. “Well I wouldn’t hit a girl anyway!” he called out. He was intercepted by an adult and then Sora himself was dragged away. But not before he saw Kairi, who had tears in her eyes, and Selphie saying, “Wakka totally deserved that.”

His mind was blank, except for some mild guilt over making Kairi cry.

And god did his face hurt for some reason.         

_Oh yeah, because I got punched._

He was expecting to be led to the principal’s office but he was actually taken to the nurse. “Why am I here?” he asked, confused.

The nurse gave him a pitying look. “You’re bleeding.”

“I am?” Sora brought a hand to his face and sure enough, it felt wet. It turned out his nose was bleeding, and his face was a bit swollen, but it wasn’t too bad, considering. He cleaned up, shoving a tissue up his nose momentarily, and putting ice on his face like the nurse instructed. Sora was sure he was in for it now. This was something that his parents would actually get mad at.

But he didn’t regret it. Not one bit. _Wakka shouldn’t talk like that. No one should talk like that. Demyx didn’t even do anything to him._ Sora held the ice away for a moment, wincing. _I guess he would call me that too, along-with Riku._

He was informed that he would receive a three day suspension. They didn’t even care when he told them that Wakka was using that word, although that was mostly because he had thrown the first punch. His mom showed up, apologizing to school personnel profusely, and took Sora home. _So much for walking home with Riku, since I’m going home a few hours early._

His mom immediately began ranting when they got in the car. “I cannot believe you would punch another kid! What came over you? We never taught you to be violent. Oh, I am so—“

“Mom.”

“What?”

“He was calling people fags.”

“ _What_?”

“So I got mad and punched him,” Sora grumbled, sinking further down into the car seat.

His mom fell silent momentarily. “That’s really what happened?”

“Yeah, mom. You can ask Kairi, she was there.” They had just parked, so Sora moodily made his way up to the house. He was still feeling angry. It helped knowing that Wakka was likely also suspended at least.

Once they were inside, his mom pulled him into a hug. “Oh, honey.”

“What?”

“Your face looks awful.”

“Yeah I guess. So should I give you my phone or something?” Sora had never been grounded, but figured that would be a part of it.

“Oh, no. I’m disappointed that you used violence, but given the circumstances, I would be much more disappointed if you used horrible language. Well, and considering…”

“Considering what?”

“Well, it must be a sensitive topic considering you just started dating Riku.”

“He implied that Riku is disgusting, mom!”

His mom shook her head sadly. “Some people are like that.”

“I don’t understand it at all! How does that even make sense?”

“Of course you don’t, and it doesn’t. But you should probably learn how to confront these people in a..different manner.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m gonna go down to the beach.”

His mom let him go.

He ran down to his usual stretch of sand; it was empty, considering it wasn’t the summer yet and it was in the middle of a Monday. He sat down, watching the waves, and put on headphones. After a while, he ended up laying down and falling asleep. He was exhausted after all that had happened.

Something was poking his head. He groaned sleepily then yelped when he met familiar eyes. His headphones fell off, now silent. “Riku, what are you doing here?”

“I knew you would be here.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“I came to see you, dummy.” Riku sat down next to him.

Sora fiddled with his headphones. “How was your day?” _He’s going to kill me if he learns I picked a fight with Wakka._

“Boring, mostly.”

“Mine too.” Sora fake laughed. He peeked at his phone and was startled to learn it was only 1:30. “Riku, are you skipping class?” he blurted.

“No,” Riku said easily. “I was suspended.”

“SUSPENDED?”

Riku shoved him, annoyed. “You’re gonna pop my eardrums.”

“Sorry,” Sora muttered. “Why were you suspended?”

“Why were _you_ suspended?” Riku shot back.

“How did you..I…I punched Wakka.”

“Well I did the same thing.” Riku laid back on the sand, hands behind his head.

Sora wasn’t connecting the dots. “Why would you do that?”

“Kairi texted me and told me what had happened, so I went to find Wakka. Just barely caught him before he went home,” Riku chuckled.

“Why would you do that?” Sora repeated with more force.

“He punched my boyfriend.”

“Oh…” Sora wasn’t used to that word. “But I punched him first.”

“I can find more than one reason to punch the guy, so just pick your favorite. Also you look like a disaster and it’s making me want to beat the shit out of him.”

“Don’t do that.” Sora gingerly touched his face, having already forgotten about it. It would surely hurt a lot more tomorrow. “Wait, did he not punch you back?”

“You think I would give him the opportunity to get a blow on me?”

Sora paused, relaxing slightly. “I guess not. But you didn’t have to get in trouble for my sake.”

Riku’s eyes were closed against the bright sunlight and he smiled. “But now we get to spend this time together.”

“Aren’t you grounded?”

“Well yeah, aren’t you?”

Sora shook his head. “No.”

“God, your parents are the best.”

“Wait, how are you here?”

Riku squinted at him. “And here I was hoping we could make out, but you just keep asking questions.”

“I’m serious, Riku!”

“I just climbed out my bedroom window. I wasn’t sure if you still had your phone, and you weren’t answering my texts.”

“Oh..I was asleep.”

“I could tell.”

“You should probably get home.”

“Probably.”

“How long are you grounded for?”

“The three days of my suspension. It was going to be longer, but I played up the part about Wakka punching you.”

“But you have your phone?”

“My dad wanted me to hang onto it in case I got any job offers.”

“But we can’t hang out, can we?”

“No, sorry.”

Sora pouted, and Riku sat up, seeing the sad, beat up looking Sora. “Hey, I’ll see you in a few days, and we can hang out this weekend.”

“Alright…”

Riku kissed Sora very gently, afraid he would hurt him. “It’ll be over before you know it. Besides, once your face starts looking bruised, you’d have to physically stop me from finding Wakka again.”

“You’re being dramatic.”

“That’s your job, Sora.”

Sora stuck his tongue out at him and they stood up, brushing sand off. “I’ll see you Thursday?”

“Yep,” Riku affirmed, kissing him again. “Bye.”

“Bye, Riku!”

They went their separate ways. Sora called Kairi later that day; she spent a good deal of the conversation yelling at him, and Sora let her. He also asked why she had told Riku immediately and she tried to defend it by saying, “Isn’t it better that he heard it rather than seeing your face covered in blood?” Which, ok, maybe he would have gone ballistic at the sight, but the chances of him seeing Sora in the first place were slim. But now he was grounded.

Riku snuck back into his room. His hands were shaking. _Shit. Shit shit shit._

He had felt better after punching Wakka, but after seeing Sora’s face, he felt horrible again. Riku sat at his desk, after aiming a kick at the wall. It had been so satisfying in the moment. When he had seen Kairi’s very long text, he had straight up walked out of class. He was such a good student that the teacher didn’t even question him, probably assuming he was off to the restroom. He actually passed someone in the hallway and they gave him a large berth, so he probably looked as pissed as he felt. Wakka was the only thing on his mind. He ducked towards the principal’s office but didn’t notice any kids nearby, so he began walking towards the front door and happened to see Wakka out the window. He ran outside. Wakka was standing next to someone who he guessed was his father. They were clearly leaving.

Riku approached and they looked at him, confused.

Wakka must have caught on, because at the last second, he brought his hands up defensively. Riku was quicker and landed a clean hit. He had only planned to punch him once, knowing that there would be consequences, but he found himself springing forward again and landing another blow. Wakka growled and pulled his arm back to retaliate. Wakka’s face was pretty clean before—just a little red—but it was already changing colors now. The adult was yelling. Wakka swung, and Riku easily shifted weight between both of his feet, ducking out of the way. Riku backed away, panting from anger and the exertion. He glared at Wakka.

Wakka was cussing at him, calling him a freak. His dad seemed to have alerted people inside. Or they had seen. Riku didn’t know. Riku was smirking, satisfied at what Wakka’s face looked like now.

The pair kept yelling at him, but Riku didn’t say anything. He allowed himself to be led away and zoned out all the voices that lectured him in the next hour. Once he was alone in his room, though, he slipped out the window.

At least it wasn’t likely Wakka would try to mess with Sora again. Or any of Riku’s friends (as in, Kairi).


	8. I Like You, I Love You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit longer on the off chance I am unable to keep my upload schedule in the next few weeks (while I drown in work). 💔 This chapter is also as stupid as Sora gets in my fic lol (;^_^A

The days passed by agonizingly slow for Riku. The only thing that kept him sane was the fact that he could text Sora constantly. The time went by easily for Sora, on the other hand, since his leash was a lot longer and he could just go bug Kairi.

He also kept dreaming of kissing Sora, and it was driving him crazy. He was used to seeing Sora almost every day. But it was only three days. It should be fine.

“Don’t be a baby,” Riku said to himself when he caught himself just watching his phone, waiting for Sora to text back. Sora wasn’t always the best texter, since he got distracted easily, but his texts often included strings of emojis which was vaguely endearing. Riku did look a bit funny, sitting alone in his room scowling at nothing.

The time did pass by at the usual speed. And Riku practically threw himself out the door Thursday morning to immediately head to Sora’s so they could walk together.

Sora waved when he saw his boyfriend approach. Riku pulled him in for a kiss. He couldn’t help himself.

“Ah—hey!” Sora squeaked, jumping back.

“Sorry.” Riku averted his eyes. “I missed you.”

“Oh, I missed you too,” Sora said, even as his eyes were scanning the area in case anyone was around. He still couldn’t believe that people could hate a group of people for something so unsubstantial. It never occurred to him to think that varying sexualities could be viewed as somehow weird or wrong. But now it was on his mind and he was feeling cautious; he didn’t want Riku to get bullied, or in another fight.

Riku wanted to hold his hand but thought better of it. They had to part ways too quickly, but would see each other after school.

Sora’s face had already healed; Wakka wasn’t so lucky. When Sora arrived at his lunch table, the usual crowd was there, save for Tidus and Wakka. He guessed that was good and went about his business.

But then Wakka was literally marched in front of Sora. His face was extremely bruised. The pair stared at each other.

“What do you want?” Sora finally asked warily.

Wakka didn’t respond until Tidus hit him in the back of the head. “I’m sorry for being an ass. Even though you hit me first.”

Tidus hit him again. “Sorry,” Wakka repeated. “I think I have, uh, developed some bad habits from my parents. It’s my fault for saying that stuff.”

Kairi turned around from where had been sitting, her face fierce, “Well, are you going to apologize to Riku too?” Sora had just been thinking that, but hadn’t expected her to cut in. He was impressed. It was almost as impressive as when she had jumped in-between their fight, when no one else was even moving.

Wakka looked caught off guard. “Um, I mean, I don’t see why…”

Kairi gave him a dirty look. Wakka swallowed. “I will.”

“Oh, good.” Kairi gave him a fake smile and then went back to eating her sandwich.

Wakka and Tidus disappeared. “Kairi, when did you get so cool?” Sora grinned at her.

“I was always cool. Besides, that made me so mad just now.”

“Why?”

She lowered her voice. “He clearly wasn’t going to plan to apologize to Riku, he thinks Riku is below him.”

Sora was beginning to wonder why they were friends with Wakka in the first place. He had just always been around, and he had never noticed anything off about him before. When Wakka had ended up spitting a sorry to Riku in the hallway, Riku had looked at him, and then coolly walked away. But it seemed resolved enough.

After school, the trio met near the flagpole. “Riku, you exist!” Kairi teased, pinching one of his cheeks. “I thought Wakka had ate you!”

“Well his mouth would be big enough for it.”

Kairi and Sora laughed. When they made it to the road in which they would go in different directions, Kairi said, “Selphie and I were going to go to karaoke Friday night, you in?”

“Sure—“

“Actually—“

Sora and Riku had said this at the same time. “You don’t wanna?” Sora asked.

“I thought we could hang out at my house,” Riku mumbled. Kairi was smiling like a mischievous cat. “Will you stop that.”

“Well don’t let me get in your way.” Kairi grinned wider.

“In the way of what?” Sora asked, oblivious as ever.

Kairi just waved and disappeared down her street. Riku had a sour look on his face. “What?” Sora asked again.

“Nothing, Sora. Let’s hang out.” He grabbed his boyfriend’s hand and dragged him towards his house.

“Alright, but only if you help me with my essay.”

“Sure, sure.”

Sora sprawled out on Riku’s bed, squiggling intensely on a piece of paper, while Riku was reading out of a textbook. “You didn’t tell your parents about us, did you?” Sora asked.

“No. What if they wouldn’t let you in my room anymore?”

“Oh, that would be awful.”

“See.”

A few minutes later, Riku let the textbook fall away from his face. “Did you tell Kairi about us hitting our teeth together?”

“Hm, no.” Sora was raising his legs up and down and then letting them flop back down. “Why?”

“She seems so…pleased with herself or something.”

“Oh, she seemed to have always known we liked each other or something.”

“What.”

Sora looked thoughtful. “Well that’s what it sounded like. She said you glared at her when I was dating her, but I don’t think you would do something like that.” Sora smiled.

Riku was at a loss for words. He didn’t think _anyone_ knew of his long term crush on his best friend, much less his other best friend. And she had never said anything. Another thing occurred to him. “Sora, when did you realize you liked to me?”

“Uhh, like two weeks ago?”

“Two weeks ago??”

“Yep.”

Riku stared. That was…so recent. Everything had happened so fast.

“Actually,” Sora continued, “it was the day I ran out of your house.”

Well that made a bit of sense. “You idiot.”

“You’re the idiot!” Sora threw a pillow at him and then he covered his face with his hands. “When did you realize that you like me?”

“I don’t know. A while ago.”      

“But whennnn?”

“Uh, we were like,” Riku averted his eyes, “twelve?”

“ _Twelve_?”

Riku frowned. “Don’t make fun of me.” He was actually feeling self-conscious.

“I’m not!” Sora sat up. “How did you stand it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I almost exploded after a few days!”

“You explode easily.”

“I’m serious though! Weren’t you sad?”

Sora was giving him a face that was a-kin to a puppy after you accidentally step on its tail. “Stop giving me that face. It was fine.”

“Is that why you had your emo phase?”

“You know,” Riku said flatly, “I think I’ll just go walk into the ocean now.”

“Sorry, sorry!” Sora rolled off the bed and plopped himself on Riku’s lap. “Happy Riku.” He poked both of his cheeks.

“I am very happy,” Riku grumbled.

“You don’t look very happy.”

Riku gave him a smile, but it was unconvincing, so Sora dug his fingers into Riku’s underarms, trying to tickle the older teen. It had never worked before and it wasn’t working now. Sora, determined, reached for Riku’s stomach instead, dancing his fingers over Riku’s body to no avail. Riku let this happen and then launched his own attach.

Within seconds, he had Sora pinned on his back, laughing his head off, tears streaming down his face while Riku continued to tickle him. “Stop! Stop! I can’t breathe! Riku!”

“Say I win.”

“No!” Sora choked out in-between laughs.

“I guess I’ll have to keep tickling then.”

“You—win.”

Riku sat up, grinning. “I thought so.”

Sora, with a playful look on his face, hooked his arms around Riku’s neck and pulled him back down. “Kiss?”

Riku obliged. They hadn’t kissed like this for a few days but it had come back easily. Sora had pushed his tongue into Riku’s mouth before Riku had the chance. It was surprising but nice. Riku tried to switch the tide—with his tongue in Sora’s mouth instead—but Sora wasn’t relenting. Sora’s tongue explored and probed. Riku shrugged mentally. Any kissing with Sora was nice anyway.

“Wecoo,” Sora said, not removing his tongue.

Riku pulled away, making Sora pout. “What?”

“Do that thing again!”

“What thing?” Riku asked, annoyed that they had already stopped kissing.

“You, like,” Sora said shyly, “sucked on my tongue?”

“Oh ok, stick your tongue out.”

Sora did as he was told, shooting his boyfriend a weird look. Riku slipped Sora’s tongue into his mouth, sucking.

He only did it for a second but that seemed to satisfy Sora. They kept kissing, swirling their tongues around each other, until Sora was trembling underneath him.

“Wait, stop,” he gasped.

Riku pulled away, feeling too hot. “Why?”

“I can’t breathe.” Sora grinned sheepishly.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Sora nuzzled his face against Riku’s. “It’s ok.”

They held each other for a second, and then scrambled back to where they had been before. It sounded like someone was approaching. They were right, it was Riku’s dad asking what they wanted for dinner.

They answered, feeling slightly mortified. “Well that was close,” Sora commented. His heart was beating loudly in his ears.

Riku agreed. They went back to their homework and once it was time for Sora to leave he asked, “Riku, you know how we are dating?”

“Yeah?”

“Shouldn’t we go on dates?”

“Oh, yeah, we can. We can do whatever you want.”

“Oh, ok,” Sora said happily, kissing Riku on the cheek. “See you tomorrow!”

Walking home, Sora thought with a thrill, _I’m dating Riku. Riku is my boyfriend._

Time passed by in a blur. It reached a new normal in which Sora and Riku would go out on a “date” every week. It was really just whatever Sora felt like doing in particular that day—swimming, visiting a dog park, going to the movies—and otherwise, they laid around one of their rooms, making out but never going further. Riku was feeling guilty because he wanted to do more, but they hadn’t been dating for very long, and Sora was so..innocent.

They also hung out with Kairi fairly often. She would usually stop teasing them if Riku shot her enough dirty looks. She thought it was funny regardless. They remained fairly secretive of their relationship, although they felt comfortable enough with her to hold hands while they hung out.

Unfortunately, as graduation approached, Riku was getting more and more restless with each passing day. He was too busy with final projects and the like to hang out with Sora as much. They hadn’t even kissed for a good two weeks.

Riku scowled to himself, hammering on his keyboard. _I’ve spent too much time on this dumb essay, I’m turning it in the second it’s completed._

He did exactly that, and texted Sora, **Hey I’m done with my essay, can you come over? Or I can come over?**

It was Friday and he was desperate to see his boyfriend. Graduation was the next weekend so he would be busy the whole time. However, luck was not on his side.

Sora was literally smiling, about to text a reply, when his mom called him. “What, mom?” He tossed his phone aside without replying and trotted out of his room.

A familiar mess of blonde hair greeted him. “Roxas is visiting!” Sora’s mom announced.

“Why, is he fighting with his parents again?” came out without thinking.

“Sora!” his mom reprimanded.

“Just kidding!”

Roxas rolled his eyes. He was Sora’s cousin. They got along fairly well and were close in age. He lived in the town over; it was like a city when you compared it to the beach town Sora lived in. It was also clearly less tourist and ocean themed. He was a lot like Riku actually: moody with a disdain for most people, but he also had close friends. Perhaps that’s why he and Riku couldn’t stand each other.

Sora was usually happy to see him, but at the moment he was disappointed. It would clearly cut into his time with Riku.

“Uh, Sora?” Roxas cut into his thoughts.

“Oh, sorry, you want the couch or a sleeping bag in my room?”

“Couch is fine. Let me shove my stuff in your room and then we can run to the store for ice cream.”

“You have literally been here for two seconds and you’re already talking about ice cream.”

“I can’t get that kind at home, and you know it.”

Sora sent Riku a text while they were walking to the store. It said, **Can’t sorry, Rox is here :(**. He watched as his cousin bought enough ice cream for a pack of starving children while he spotted the gross dark chocolate candy bar that Riku loved. He bought that and a pack of bubble gum for himself.

“I never would have pegged you for a dark chocolate kinda guy,” Roxas commented.

“Oh, it’s not for me, it’s for Riku.”

“Oh,” Roxas said flatly.

A few hours later, Roxas had put on some ghost movie, and Sora was hiding behind a pillow. See? He was as bad as Riku.

Except he laughed at Sora a lot more. He had noticed that Sora was on his phone constantly. “Will you stop that? The light from your screen is ruining my movie experience.”

“My house.”

Roxas rolled his eyes again.

Riku was beyond annoyed when he got Sora’s text. He never liked Roxas and now he was getting in the way of their plans. After pacing for a while, and attempting and failing to get absorbed in a game, he decided he could put up with the cousin if it meant he got to see Sora. He texted that he was heading over, pulled on a hoodie, and headed out. He could always just sleep over if there was room.

The prospect of seeing Riku made Sora happy, but he was worried that him and his cousin would end up fighting like usual. “Roxas?” he said meekly.

“What?”

“Riku is coming over.”   

“Great.”

“Be nice.”

“I’m always nice,” Roxas protested.

Riku arrived quickly. Roxas and he immediately shot each other dirty looks. _Seriously you guys_ , Sora thought.

“Hey,” Riku greeted his boyfriend.

“Hi! I got you this!” Sora gave him the candy.

“Oh, thanks. Let’s hang out in your room?”

“Sure.”

“On second thought,” Roxas stood up, stretching, “I think I’ll sleep in your room, Sora.” He gave Riku an evil smile.

_You little twerp,_ Riku bristled. “Your movie isn’t over though,” Sora pointed out.

Roxas clicked it off. “I’ve seen it already.”

“Then why are you watching it at my house?” Sora exclaimed.

Roxas shrugged. “Nothing better to do.” He padded past them to Sora’s room, so there was no chance of privacy here.

“Sorry,” Sora whispered. “Are you mad?”

“No, but you know he does that on purpose.”

“He’s just trying to annoy you.”

“Well he’s doing a good job of it.”

“Sooooora!” Roxas called. “I’m bored!”

“Oh my god.”

Roxas had already set up camp on Sora’s floor, with a sleeping bag, chips, and an open laptop. The room was quite cramped with these additions. The pair stepped around him. “I’m not your entertainer, Roxas,” Sora said.

“Maybe Riku can entertain me,” Roxas grinned.

“Don’t plan on it, shrimpy.”

“I’m the same exact height as Sora!”

“My mistake. Your personality just reminds me of a kid, so the shrimpyness got stuck in my head.”

“Sora, your friend is bullying me.” Roxas actually didn’t look bothered in the slightest. This was practically a routine at this point.

“Stop, you guys,” Sora chided. He got out his own laptop and headphones, and Riku and he laid side by side on the bed watching videos. Roxas did the same thing from the floor. A few hours later he announced that he was going to turn off the light to go to bed. Riku was still laying there.

“Sora.” He hissed while his boyfriend was reaching for his lamp.

“What?”

“I can’t sleep in here.”

He had, in fact, shared Sora’s bed before. But now he looked pointedly at Roxas’s head. “Oh,” Sora said slowly. “I guess you can sleep on the couch.”

Roxas had the audacity to smile at Riku the entire time he was walking out of the room. “Roxas, seriously,” Sora said, exasperated. “Why don’t you like Riku?”

“His face annoys me.”

Sora shut off the light, feeling really bad for his boyfriend.

The next day was much the same. What was worse, however, was Roxas informing them that he was staying over until after Kairi’s party, which was two weeks away. She had invited him, much to Riku’s growing annoyance. Sora had to remind himself that Roxas had a rough home life, so he couldn’t be mad that he was staying for so long.

Roxas also seemed to have caught on to the nature of their relationship, based off of some of his remarks. Roxas and Riku ended up in a fierce Mario kart battle, with Sora watching off to the side. Once it was over, Riku pulled Sora into his room. Sora had been making this adorable pouty face during Mario kart and Riku really really really wanted to kiss him already. “What’s wrong, Riku?” Sora was asking.

Riku was already bending down and—

“Sora!” The door burst open, bouncing off Riku’s back. “Oh sorry,” Roxas smirked. “I was wondering if you could walk me to the store again, I forget which way it is,” he said innocently.

“You know where the store is,” Riku accused.

Roxas blinked several times. “You forget, I’m a _visitor_.”

“It’s literally two blocks away,” Sora cut in.

“You are seriously impossible. C’mon, Sora.” Riku grabbed Sora’s hand and dragged him out. Roxas was howling with laughter behind them.

“Wait, should we really leave?” Riku continued to lead Sora out of his house, and down the street. “I should—“

Riku pushed his boyfriend up against a palm tree and kissed him fiercely.

“Well, hi to you too,” Sora said once he pulled away.

“Sorry,” Riku kept walking. “I just really wanted to kiss you.”

“It’s ok,” Sora said, his head now in the clouds. _Wait_. “I’m supposed to keep Roxas company.”

“I think he’ll be fine,” Riku said darkly.

They headed to Riku’s house. They found it empty; Riku had forgotten that his parents were out of town visiting his grandparents. He said this out loud, but the second he said it, nervous tension filled the air. “Oh ok,” Sora laughed at nothing. They kicked their shoes off and went up to Riku’s room.

Riku sat at his desk and Sora sat on the bed. They stared at nothing.

“Um, what do you want to do?” Sora asked.

“I can think of a few things.”

“I thought you would want to make out.”

Riku chuckled. “Well, yeah.”

He moved onto the bed, hovering over an already flustered Sora. Riku kissed him once, twice, softly, before deepening the kiss. The tension was still in the air, and Riku began kissing his boyfriend urgently, frantically. The way he had been holding back for the past few weeks broke out and he was moving instinctively, with only enough room in his mind for Sora. He wanted to only focus on Sora. Sora.

Sora felt something strange stirring in himself. Riku was acting different than usual. It felt good but it also felt like Riku was desperate for something. Sora wasn’t sure what he would want so badly; he was probably just pent up from bickering with Roxas.

Sora’s thoughts stopped completely when Riku ran his tongue down his neck. He squeaked but Riku didn’t stop. He actually started nipping and sucking.

Sora froze. It was weird. It was so weird. Why did it feel good?

He shuddered and Riku brought his face back up. His eyes were hazy and his lips were red from kissing. He leaned back down, slipping his tongue back into Sora’s mouth.

Sora’s mind wanted to race, but it went blank again. His body was tensing. Riku ran a hand up his side, almost experimentally. They kept kissing, Riku still leading.

Their bodies were pressed against each other. Sora felt so hot, like the room was a hundred degrees hotter than it was when they had entered. Riku was licking the other side of his neck now before returning to his mouth. Sora realized, much to his embarrassment, that specific parts of his body were responding to all this attention. It had happened before, but typically calmed down because they had never made out for this long.

Riku was still lost in Sora.

Riku was twirling his tongue around Sora’s and he pulled back to take a breath, a line of spit connecting them. _Oh my god_ , Sora thought, but Riku didn’t seem to mind and went back to kissing. He pressed his hips down in a way that made Sora take a sharp breath. _Can he…can he tell?_

Riku pressed down again and Sora grabbed onto the back of his shirt as if it was a lifeline. He pressed down yet again and a noise escaped Sora’s mouth.

Riku finally stopped kissing him. “Does that feel ok?”

Sora wouldn’t look at him. His face was on fire. “Mhm,” he mumbled.

Riku buried his face into his boyfriend’s neck, kissing up and down and continuing to move his hips to grind against Sora. Sora felt like he was going crazy, weird sounds kept trying to bubble up past his throat. _What’s happening?_

Riku’s hands were on his sides but they stayed put. Sora felt his body trying to grind upwards of its own accord. He was going to stop it out of embarrassment but it felt so good.

Riku brought his face back up, looking at his boyfriend, so Sora forced his eyes tightly closed. Pleasure was building in his stomach and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to keep clutching onto Riku’s shirt or if he wanted to cover his face with his hands. He decided to do both; his right hand buried itself in fabric and his left went over his face. Riku kept grinding against him, but now he couldn’t kiss him since a hand was in the way. He was about to try to move Sora’s hand when his boyfriend made a sound that stopped him in his tracks.

It was a low moan. Sora was clearly trying not to make any sounds but now he whined. “Don’t stop.”

Riku’s eyes widened. He rolled his hips again, this time harder. He wanted to look at Sora’s face but had a feeling that any attempt to move the hand would be met with fierce resistance. He couldn’t get over how hot it was, seeing Sora underneath him, blushing and making low moans.

He felt Sora’s grip on him tighten before he moaned again. It was much louder this time. Then the hand on Riku dropped and Sora froze, opening one eye to look up at Riku, who had stopped moving too. This whole experience had been confusing for the brunette. He had felt like he was going to explode and now he felt mysteriously wet.

“I..I, uh,” Sora tried to talk. “Can I go to the bathroom?”

Riku nodded, dumbly, scrambling off his boyfriend, who rushed off.

Sora was beyond mortified. He wanted to die. He wanted to sink into the floor never to be seen again. Especially never seen by Riku again. He had orgasmed just from that and now his underwear was all dirty. “Oh my god, oh my god,” he repeated, frantically trying to clean himself off with toilet paper. It didn’t help that he had very limited knowledge of this kind of stuff, even as it pertains to himself; he had wet dreams on occasion, but that was about it, and his parents had given him a very straightforward talk about love and where babies come from. But that had to do with girls and Riku _was not_ a girl. So it did not apply.

He didn’t think he could feel that good from something so weird.

He finished cleaning best he could, and then stood at the door of the bathroom, trying to figure out a way to face Riku.

Riku was beside himself. He felt like he had accidentally crossed a line. He had gotten too lost in everything, and he thought that Sora was liking it, but clearly he wasn’t because he had immediately ran away. Riku nervously waited. _Why is he taking so long?_

Sora finally appeared. He had realized something else in the midst of his panic. “Riku.”

“What?” Riku stood up.

“I didn’t bring my toothbrush. Or clothes. Or anything.”

“Oh. I’m sorry, I made you rush off, we can go back and—“

“No!” Sora said quickly. “I can just sleep in your guest room or something.”        

Riku felt hurt. “You can sleep in here.”

“You…” Sora wasn’t looking at him. “Don’t you think I’m weird?”

“Weird? Why would I think that you’re weird?” Now Riku was the confused one for once.          

“Cause!” Sora burst desperately.

“Because…?”

“I…you know…” Sora’s face was somehow getting redder.

“You?” Riku paused, his brain swiftly thinking the words moan and bathroom. “Wait—you? You ejaculated?”

“Don’t say that word!” Sora shrieked, his voice shrill. “That’s for making babies!”

_Oh lord,_ Riku thought. “That was the point, Sora. I’m sorry, I went too far.”

Sora finally looked over at his boyfriend. He was feeling too weak to keep standing so he cautiously sat down. “What do you mean?”

“I was trying to make you feel good.”

Sora looked skeptical. “You made my pants dirty.”

“Sorry, I didn’t think about that part.”

“I’m still confused.”

“Why? Didn’t your parents talk to you about this? Have you even heard half of the things that come out of Tidus’s mouth?”

“For your information, yes. My mom told me all about..making a mess..with a girl to make babies! So you tell me why it feels good without me..putting it in a girl.”

“Haven’t you ever done it yourself?”

“Done what myself?”

Riku couldn’t believe he was having this conversation with someone who would be out of high school soon. But it was Sora. “Make yourself ejaculate.”

“Why would I do that? It makes a mess.”

“Because it feels good.”

For some reason, Sora had never connected these two things. “Wait, what?”

“When you stimulate down there,” Riku said slowly, “it feels good, regardless of whether you are having sex with a girl or not. And when you orgasm, you ejaculate.”

“What’s an orgasm?”

Riku resisted the urge to smack himself in the forehead; instead, he pulled up google and read the textbook definition. All Sora said was, “Oh.” It all made sense now but this was increasing his embarrassment because now he also felt stupid. Especially because Riku seemed so surprised he didn’t know these things. 

“Riku?”

“What?” They were sitting, looking in opposite directions.

“Is it…weird that I..you know, from whatever that was?”

“No, I don’t think so. Do you want to borrow some of my clothes to sleep in?”

“Yeah.” Silence. “Riku?”

“What?”

“Why didn’t Kairi tell me this stuff? I’m guessing you didn’t because you thought I knew.”

“It’s not really a normal conversation, is it? And she doesn’t have a penis.”         

“Don’t say that word!” Sora shrieked again.        

“What do you want me to call it?”

“Um..I don’t know.”

“I’m sorry for embarrassing you.”

“It’s ok. Did you also..you know?”

“No.”

“Are you mad?” Sora was feeling like a loser, knowing that Riku hadn’t also finished.

“No, I wouldn’t get mad over something stupid like that.”

“Was it not good enough?”        

Riku stood up and wrapped his arms around Sora. “You’re too insecure sometimes.”

“Am not,” Sora pouted even though it was true.

“It was the hottest thing I have ever experienced in my life.” He kissed the top of Sora’s head. It made Sora buzz with sudden happiness; Riku wasn’t really one for giving kisses that weren’t of the lip variety.

And apparently the neck. Sora shook that thought away. “Do you have any old clothes that would fit me better?”

They went on a search. They didn’t find anything that would actually fit Sora well, but they were just for bed anyway. He ended up in a band t-shirt and shorts with the sting pulled tight, desperately not trying to think about the fact that he had begrudgingly ditched his dirty underwear. “God you look so cute wearing my clothes.”

Sora looked down at himself. “I literally look normal.”

Riku chuckled. They curled up in bed together. Sora was finding it hard to stay awake, and was already dozing off. “I’m sleepy, Riku.”

“You can go to sleep.”

“Mm ok. Good night, Riku.”       

“Good night, Sora.”

“I love you.”

Riku froze.


	9. The Remedy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally another chapter. (/#-_-)/~┻┻〃

Sora being Sora meant that he had said I love you before, but it had always been under quite different circumstances. It was framed as the love for his friends, for how important his friends were to him; this naturally included Riku but at the moment, they were spooning and dating.          

Riku stared at the back of Sora’s head, his pulse quickening. “What did you say?”

No response. _Is he seriously asleep?_ Riku shifted slightly to take a peek.

He was.

_He needs to stop confessing in his sleep._ Riku found himself staring at his boyfriend well into the night. He couldn’t calm down. He kept wondering what he would do if Sora said that to his face.

He loved Sora. Of course he did, he always had. But he wasn’t sure if, when the time came, he would actually be able to get the words out. Unlike his friends, he wasn’t very forward with his feelings. Or good at talking. It was easy enough to make comments about Sora’s cuteness, because those thoughts always popped up abruptly and were very much reinforced by Sora’s reactions. But the feelings of love were just…normal. Constant. It also brought up a tiny bubble of fear. Riku wasn’t entirely sure why. It could be because saying I love you would make him extremely vulnerable, or that it meant that him and his boyfriend were getting closer, which would make it harder down the line if they hit into any road bumps.

Not that he would ever let go of Sora completely.

It also occurred to him that he would look like the biggest jerk if he didn’t return the words. _Especially_ after what they had done, _especially_ from the way Sora had reacted. It was probably too fast. It was Riku’s fault.

_Would I even notice if he told me stop?_ A lump formed in his throat, a feeling he hadn’t felt for a while trying to consume him. _No, of course I would._

But he could see himself being unable to say I love you with Sora crying in response. And Kairi literally murdering him.

_No, I’ll say it. It’s easy._

When Sora woke up, he had much different worries. The first was having to put his clothes from yesterday back on. And then facing Roxas. He was also conflicted over the physical contact of the day before; it had felt..well, incredible, but Sora was acutely aware of how little he apparently knew. He kinda wanted to ask Riku how he could do that on his own, but at the same time, never wanted to ask; nor did he want to do an internet search, afraid of what he might find. He wished they could do that more without it being so mortifying.

When Sora carefully extracted himself from the bed, he realized Riku was already awake. “Oh..good morning.”

“Morning,” Riku said gruffly. He looked a little worse for wear.

“I should, um, get home.”

Riku nodded blankly as Sora rushed off to put his clothes back on. He reappeared, looking vaguely grossed out. “Ok, I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”             

“Wait, Sora, I—“ Riku reached out but stopped.

“What?”

“I….are you mad at me?”

“No, of course not!” Sora gave him a bright smile. “I just have to make sure Roxas hasn’t gotten into trouble.”

“Oh..ok. See you later then.”

Roxas was much better behaved now that Riku wasn’t around. He buzzed around his cousin upon his return. “Where’d you go?” he asked. “Why do you look like that?”

Sora pushed past Roxas. “I’m gonna shower.”

“You seem weird, are you ok?”

Sora stopped in his tracks, having just gotten to the bathroom, fresh clothes in my hands. “Yeah, I’m fine.”        

Roxas crossed his arms in an almost menacing way. “Well, if Riku did something to upset you, I can kick his ass.”

“You think you could?”

Roxas snorted. “You’d be surprised.”

“But no, he didn’t do anything.”

“Well I can tell he did _some_ things.”

“Some things? What?” Sora slowly turned to face his cousin, terrified that he had somehow been found out.

Roxas gave a short huff that was likely a laugh, and pointed to his own neck. Sora’s hand flew to the corresponding spot and he rushed to look in the mirror. “I’m..bruised?” he asked upon seeing the mark. _Does Roxas think Riku tried to strangle me or something? But he seems so amused._

“Shouldn’t you cover it up?” Roxas giggled, slightly relishing this situation.

“Cover..why?”

“Do you want your parents to see that?”

Speaking of parents, there was a rustling behind them. Sora grabbed onto his cousin’s arm, yanking him into the bathroom and slamming the door behind them in a panic. Roxas caught his balance, giving Sora a look.

Sora pointed at his neck. “What is it?”

“It’s a hickey.”

“A what?”

“Sora, you are so dumb.”

“Just tell me what it is.”

Roxas looked at his nails, as if he was suddenly bored. “It’s a mark you get from someone kissing and sucking on your skin.”

_Kissing and s…sucking??_ Sora’s mind jumped to yesterday, not for the first time that day. “How do I get rid of it??” he burst.

“Just put some concealer on it. Or wear a scarf or something.” Roxas grinned. “On the beach.”

Sora looked at it again. There was no way he would get away with wearing a scarf in such warm weather. “Can you help me put on some concealer? But I don’t have any…”

“What’s in it for me?”

Sora racked his brain. “I’ll send you that sea-salt ice cream to your house.”

Roxas perked up. “How much and how often?”

“Um…a pack weekly, for the rest of the summer?”

“Hmm. How about we extend it by a month?”

Sora sighed. “Fine, whatever, but you have to show me how to use concealer properly and you can’t tell anyone about this.”

Roxas’s grin stretched even further. “Why would I tell anyone about Riku sucking on your neck?”

“Shut up!” Sora huffed, aiming a kick at his cousin’s shin. _How did he even know?_ “Besides, why do _you_ know about this stuff?”

“I don’t live under a rock, like you do?”

“Just go buy some concealer while I take a shower, ok? And then come back here and knock on the door.”

“Aye, aye, captain.” Roxas opened the door with a wink.

“I knew that you could find the store by yourself!” Sora yelled after him. He dug his phone out of his pocket to let Riku know and jumped into the shower.

Riku stared at the text from where he had been lifting weights. “I gave him a hickey? Shit.” He sent an apology, incredulous that neither one of them had noticed. They were too busy not looking at each other.

Sora was fully dressed, sitting on the toilet, waiting for Roxas, who was clearly dilly dallying. By the time the blonde showed up, Sora wanted to strangle him. He was inspecting a tube of makeup. “I think I got the right kind, we should be about the same skin tone.”

With the ease of an expert, he made the hickey disappear. “There you go.”

Sora stared at his reflection, incredulous. “You can do this tomorrow too?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Roxas hid the concealer in the medicine cabinet.

“How long will it last?”

“Probably about a week.”

“A week??”

“Maybe you shouldn’t let Riku suck on your neck.” Roxas rolled his eyes.

“That was the first time!” Sora burst, and then immediately regretted saying anything.

“Are you serious? That’s even funnier.” Roxas laughed.

Sora, now in a permeant state of embarrassment, tried to have some alone time at the beach but his cousin followed. Sora went into the water, swimming out far enough that Roxas couldn’t stick to him anymore. At least the concealer was water-proof.

The week came and went. Sora wasn’t sure of what to do with the feelings he was having, so instead he just tried to avoid his friends. He was mostly avoiding Riku, who assumed he was furious over the hickey. Kairi didn’t understand what was happening, but kept flicking Riku in case it was his fault. Riku finally managed to corner Sora the Friday before graduation. The last day Riku would have to ever suffer through high school.

“What’s up with you?” Riku asked. He was both worried and annoyed at the way Sora was acting.

“Nothing!” Sora put his hands up in defense. “I just feel awkward. Especially when I’m around you,” he mumbled.

“I said I’m sorry. Do you want me to say it again?”

“No, you didn’t mean to.”

_Didn’t mean to,_ flashed in Riku’s mind. “I’ll be more careful from now on.”

“Now on?” Sora asked, clearly nervous at the prospect of things continuing.

“No, shit, I mean if you want to do anything, I’ll be careful. That’s what I meant.”

“Oh.” Sora looked up. “I mean I wouldn’t… _not_ want to do anything…”

Riku stared and Sora continued, “I’m serious, I just feel awkward right now, but I’m sure that will go away! Especially after the, uh, bruise goes away.”

_I hope so._ “Are you still going to my graduation tomorrow?”

“I would never miss it!” The trademark Sora smile was back.

“Alright,” Riku sighed, relieved. The bell rang above their heads; they were standing near the sinks in one of the bathrooms. Riku swooped down, kissing Sora quickly.   

“We’re at school!” Sora squeaked.

“There’s no one here.”

Sora grumbled and they finished their school day.

Riku’s heart was a bit lighter for his graduation. It dragged by, boring as hell, and then Riku, along-with Sora and Kairi and his family, went out to Riku’s favorite restaurant to celebrate. They had huge hamburgers that Riku always inhaled.

The conversation wasn’t noteworthy until Kairi brought up her party, which was happening on the next Friday. “So you’re both going, right?”

“No way,” Riku downright refused. “I already had to suffer through that graduation ceremony.”

Sora gave a pointed look at Kairi, trying to mouth I-Didn’t-Ask-Him-Yet. Kairi burst, “It’s literally a week away, Sora!”

Riku looked at his friends suspiciously. “Are you trying to set me up or something?”

Sora, even though Riku’s parents were sitting just further down the table, put his hand on Riku’s under the table and turned on his puppy dog eyes to 100%. “I really want to go, but I don’t want to go without my boyfriend.”

Riku’s eyes darted from his parents, who luckily weren’t paying attention, and then back to Sora’s face. “I..I don’t..”

“Pleeeeeese!”

Now Kairi was also giving him an expectant look. “I don’t know,” Riku said slowly.

“What if someone tries to bully Sora? Or tries to get with him? I know at least three girls that like him,” Kairi added.

“I’ll go,” Riku said abruptly

Kairi and Sora high fived and Riku just knew he would regret this.


	10. We Like to Party

The day of the party, Roxas helped Sora pick out an outfit, because “your fashion choices make my eyes burn.” This actually ended up with Sora borrowing some of Roxas’s clothes—which were both tighter and blacker than what Sora usually wore. He didn’t see the point of this, because the party was literally at Kairi’s house, but he went along with it to please his cousin. Once said cousin was happy, he skateboarded away, saying him and his friends from out of town were going to go to the beach before the festivities started.

Now Sora was super bored. Kairi insisted that she didn’t need help getting ready so he had no choice but to wait for Riku. Who was taking forever to show up for some reason.

When there was a knock on the door, Sora threw himself at it. “Hi!” he said, breathless. “I still don’t get why you knock, you should just climb into the window like I do.”

Riku ignored that, looking him up and down. “Your outfit…”

Sora’s fingers pulled at the end of the shirt. “It’s weird, isn’t it?”

“No, I was going to say it, uh, looks good on you.”

Sora beamed. “But you like my usual outfits more, right?”

“I dunno.” Riku walked past to enter the house, now seeming to look at Sora’s pants.

Sora rolled his eyes. “So what time do you want to head over?”

“Never,” Riku said flatly. He had actually spent all morning working out to keep his mind off the party.

“We still have like an hour anyway.”

They moved through the small house to Sora’s room, where they somehow got into a competition of trying to catch various foods in their mouths. Riku had just thrown a gusher at Sora’s mouth when a phone rang, and Sora moved, the gusher bouncing off his cheek. “Oh, Kairi is calling me,” he said happily, picking up the lost gusher off the floor and placing it in his mouth with no hesitation. He put the phone up to his ear with a, “Helloooooo?”

Kairi was standing in the middle of her basement, where she had just finished setting up. “So is Riku in a foul mood?”

Sora looked at his boyfriend, who was tugging at his bangs and at the ends of his hair, probably thinking about a haircut. “I’d say…normal.”

“I was just curious,” Kairi giggled. “I want him to have a good time. When are you two heading over?”

“We can head over now!” Riku looked up.

“Ok, I’ll see you guys soon.”

“Ok, Kai, bye!”

When they finally entered Kairi’s basement, the location for the festivities, Riku immediately spotted bunches of black graduation balloons floating around; it was touching, kinda, but it didn’t make Riku suddenly want to be there. Kairi was wearing a pink, lacey A-line dress, and was clearly aware that Riku was already feeling uncomfortable despite no one having arrived yet.

Kairi’s house was in an affluent community, and it showed; her basement came complete with a foosball table, pool table, huge flat screen TV and accompanying speakers, decorative swords on the wall (her father’s), and a popcorn maker. The new additions, outside of the balloons, was a table shoved in the corner, covered with snacks, and multicolored streamers. Sora was already hopping around excitedly. “This looks great, Kairi! You should have let us help!”

“I had fun setting up.” She shifted her weight. “You can say it, Riku.”

“This is for me isn’t it.”

“Yes, because you,” she poked him in the shoulder, “refused to have a graduation party.”

“Because I don’t want one!”

“I want all of us to have one,” she half whined.

“Yeah, yeah. Who did you invite anyway? You know I would be happy with just you and Sora.”

She twirled a piece of hair around her finger. “Oh, just a few people.”

A few people turned out to be around twenty people, some of which Riku didn’t even recognize. A bunch of the kids were from their school, including Tidus, Selphie, Seifer, Fuu, Rai, and Yuna. The other noticeable group came from the town over, all connected to Roxas and familiar. There was Pence, Olette, Hayner, and Naminé, along-with a girl with black hair that Riku couldn’t quite remember. Riku found himself lingering behind Sora as he talked to literally everyone. Sora was in his element, and was friends with everyone here. Riku didn’t mind some of the party-goers, but there were a few he couldn’t stand; most of them were cordial to him, although he knew it was largely due to his friendship with Sora. A lot of the teens thought Riku was stand-offish.

People trickled in. There was a huge commotion when a great dane ran into the room, Pence closely behind. “What the hell?” Kairi stared. The enormous dog was greeting everyone eagerly while bumping into anything available that could be bumped into. Hayner, Roxas, and Olette appeared; the two boys were holding onto each other and laughing. Kairi marched up to them. “Why is there a dog in my house?”

The dog jumped onto Pence, licking his cheek. “This fella followed me. I couldn’t get rid of him.”

“Maybe if you hadn’t been giving him popcorn the whole time!” Olette burst.

“Come on, guys,” Hayner said. “He’ll lighten up the party!”

Kairi did not look convinced. Sora was already sitting on the floor, letting the dog half climb into his lap. The dog was much too big for this. “You should probably take the dog back, he has a collar,” Riku pointed out.

“Aww, can’t he just stay for the party?” Sora complained.

Everyone except for Riku and Kairi looked a bit excited at the prospect. Kairi glanced around the room, which was spacious but the dog had already knocked some napkins onto the floor by the wagging of its tail. “Well,” she started, “maybe if you keep him out back and take him back to wherever you found him right after the party.”

“Yes!” Pence and Hayner yelled and gave each other a high five. They went to drag the dog back outside.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t get them to leave him,” Olette apologized.

Roxas grinned. “But now the dog can add fun back into the party that Riku is sucking out.”

Olette elbowed him and Sora flicked his cousin with a, “This party is for Riku!” _Not that anyone is talking to me,_ Riku thought.

“That reminds me,” Olette continued, digging into the pocket of her jeans. “Here! It’s a graduate present from us. We worked really hard for it.”

She handed something to Riku. It was literally a bag stuffed with money.

Roxas crossed his arms. “Those are tips from our part time jobs.”

“Oh.” Riku was surprised, especially at the implication that Roxas had earned money for him. “Thanks.”

“I expect you to spend it on Sora.”

“Roxas!” Olette chided. “It’s his money, he can spend it how he wants.”

Roxas grinned like he knew he was being obnoxious. “But isn’t it normal to spend money on your boyfriend?”

Everyone reacted at once. Olette gasped, her hand flying to her mouth; Kairi’s eyes widened; Riku took an angry step forward; Sora seemed unbothered. At that moment, Pence and Hayner reappeared, Hayner asking, “Did I miss a nasty yo-mama joke or something?”

“No,” Kairi said firmly.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t—“ Olette started.

“It’s ok.”

Now Pence and Hayner were more confused than ever. They leaned towards Roxas, asking what the deal was; the blonde responded with, “Not much, we need to hurry up and play pool before it gets hogged by someone.”

They disappeared, Olette following after a pause in which she said, “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything. I think Roxas just likes teasing you guys.”

“I don’t get what the big deal is.” Sora tucked his hands behind his head. “Wakka wasn’t invited. Everyone here is nice.”

“Yeah but some of the people here would definitely tell him,” Kairi explained. “You should keep it on the down-low.”

Sora looked at Riku, hopeful. “I agree,” Riku said.

Sora deflated. “But then I can’t even hold your hand for like, almost a whole day!”

“I think you’ll survive,” Kairi rolled her eyes. “I’m gonna investigate that.” She pointed at Seifer, who appeared to be lugging in a cart of beer.

Sora had thought about having Riku teach him how to play pool more effectively, including a lot of close contact, but that idea had been dashed; he was about to suggest their usual competitive foosball tournaments when he got wrapped up in a conversation with Selphie.

Riku ended up leaning against a wall in the corner, watching Sora bounce around. He was feeling more uncomfortable and irritated with each passing second.

“Hey, are you ok?”

He jumped, startled, and saw the girl with black hair. “Yeah.”

“Oh, I’m sorry I scared you.” She leaned against the wall with him, sipping something out of a cup. “I’m not much for parties either.”

“Do I know you?”

She gave him a look. “I’m Xion, we’ve met before.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right, sorry. It’s been a while.” _She’s a friend of Roxas’s. She always seemed nice, like most of his friends._

“That’s ok.”

Riku couldn’t think of a conversation topic, but was accidently helped by Sora, who was waving his arms and yelling something about chickens. “He is so weird.” Riku shook his head.

Xion laughed. “At least he is enjoying himself.”

The volume increased suddenly, pressing on Riku’s ears harshly as someone turned up the music. He took a sidestep closer to Xion to better hear her. “Uh, can I ask you something?”

“Sure!”

“Why does Roxas hate me?”

She visibly looked surprised. “He doesn’t!”

Riku scowled.

“I’m serious! I think he just finds you annoying.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“And he has said something before like how Sora deserves someone better.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Not sure what he means though, because you seem like a good friend.”

“No idea,” Riku said flatly.

Xion had just started gushing about how cute that great dane was when they noticed Sora. He was pushing himself through a thong of people, making a beeline for them. Yuna was holding his hand, giggling; Sora was looking panicked. “Hey, Riku,” he said.

Riku stared at their hands, his face twitching in irritation. Sora continued, “I was just telling Yuna that you’re really good at math and can help her out!” Sora tried to communicate with eyes, asking for a bail out.

“I guess,” Riku said slowly.

“Sora says he isn’t good at it,” Yuna said. “But he’s so cute!”

_What does that have to do with math?_ Both Riku and Sora thought. Sora was randomly moving his hand, but Yuna wasn’t letting go. Riku felt anger rising in his chest, and he contemplated how much trouble he would get in if he just physically yanked her off his boyfriend. He didn’t have to do anything, however, because Tidus appeared to drag Yuna away. She still looked happy, so whatever.

“I couldn’t get her off!” Sora loudly whispered to his boyfriend.

“Well, you are cute,” Xion giggled. She had been watching the whole thing.

“Not you too!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t cling to you.”

Sora seemed relieved at that. Riku still looked angry.

A while later, it was starting to get dark outside and some of the kids had disappeared. The dog outside was barking so it was likely they were playing with him. Regardless, at this point, everyone was gravitating towards their natural groups. Riku had continued to stand around not talking, and Kairi kept shoving food at him and little presents people had gotten for him. Suddenly, the music stopped, and Hayner was dragging people to sit in a circle.

“You too, grumpy.” Riku got dragged.

“What’s happening?” Sora asked, plopping down next to his boyfriend.

“I’m bored,” Hayner announced. “So we are going to play Never Have I Ever.”

“Ooooh, how do you play?”

“…you’ve never played?”

Kairi appeared, elegantly tucking her legs underneath her as she sat down. “We try to protect our Sora.”

“What’s that supposed to mean??” Sora burst.

“Besides, I think this could be interesting.” She had a cat-like look on her face.

“Sora and I don’t want to play,” Riku said flatly.

“Awww, Riku, you haven’t played anything yet! And it sounds fun!” Sora whined.

“Yeah, Riku, you should play,” Hayner smirked. He had also assembled Olette, Pence, and Naminé. He had let Xion say no, but not Riku, who was deeply frowning at this point.

Hayner explained the rules, solely for Sora, and started the game. Everyone had a spiked drink, except for Sora. He was given a cup of soda from Kairi, who then gave Riku something with a splash of whiskey, figuring he probably needed it.

“Never have I ever…eaten a whole cake by myself,” Hayner started.

Sora and Olette took a drink. “No regrets,” Sora grinned.

_Well, maybe this actually won’t be too bad,_ Riku thought.

Now it was Pence’s turn. He went right for it. “Never have I ever peed in public.”

Hayner immediately hit him. “It was one time, dude! And it barely counts as public!”

Everyone paused as Pence and Olette laughed. “Are you..are you going to elaborate on that?” Kairi asked.

“No.” Hayner took a drink.

“Never have I ever pretended to know something to impress a crush,” Olette said.

Everyone except for Sora, Riku, and Naminé took a drink. Riku was still a little anxious, but Sora seemed oblivious; maybe the game would stay away from more sexual topics. Which would be good.

“My turn!” Kairi put her hands together excitedly. “Never have I ever had a dream about someone I like.”

Sora and Riku took a drink, each wondering if the dream had involved each other; Naminé and Pence also drank.

Sora said, “Never have I ever tried to kill ants with a magnifying glass.”  

Everyone stared at him. Pence said, “I don’t think people actually do that.”

“Someone has to have done it before!” No one drank but Sora maintained that it was a thing that happened.

Riku stared forward. “Never have I ever gotten my tongue stuck by licking a frozen pole.”

“Hey!” Sora started fake punching his boyfriend. “That was one time!”

“It still counts,” Riku shrugged.

Sora, slightly fuming, drank. Everyone was getting into the game; they turned to Naminé expectantly. “Hmm…never have I ever…cheated on a test.”

Hayner rolled his eyes and took a drink. The first round was over and it was his turn again. “Never have I ever received or given a handjob.”

The group burst out, yelling at Hayner and laughing. Riku’s stomach dropped, and when he peeked at Sora, the brunette seemed unbothered but confused. Before he could stop him, Sora asked, “What’s that?”

The group roared again and Riku wanted to die. “You like,” Hayner was explaining between loud laughs, “stimulate _down there_.”

Sora stared, his face turning red. “Oh.” _I think that’s what Riku was talking about. Oh my god._

Pence and Olette were the only ones to take a drink, to which Hayner looked shocked. Before he could interrogate them, Pence said, “Never have I ever lied to my parents about where I was going.”

And the game continued with much the same pacing, except now everyone seemed out to embarrass each other. Hayner, at least, seemed happy with this result. They were just arguing about what constituted snooping into a friend’s room, while Naminé was calmly eating chips one at a time, when Roxas tackled Hayner. “You’re playing Never Have I Ever without me??”

“You weren’t here when we started!”

“ _I_ was returning a dog, and waiting with Xion while her parents picked her up.” Roxas shot a look at Pence.

“Oh yeah,” Pence said sheepishly.

“So,” Roxas grinned, shoving himself between Hayner and Pence, “did I miss anything good? Anyone ask about hickeys?”

Riku gave him a death glare; Sora was staring at the floor. Hayner launched off in a recap and then let Roxas take a turn. He immediately said, “Never have I ever said someone’s name while climaxing.”

“Leave it to Roxas to come up with the interesting stuff,” Hayner laughed.

Everyone except Sora and Naminé took a drink. Riku did this as discreetly as possible, stubbornly refusing to look at Sora, who was literally buzzing next to him. _You are the literal bane of my existence, Roxas,_ Riku thought; meanwhile Sora was doing some mental gymnastics to make sure he knew what that sentence had meant while also wondering whose name Riku had said. He would have to ask later.

The game took a sexual turn but it was all stuff that wouldn’t apply to Riku or Sora; the older teen could almost sigh in relief, having been afraid of the words dry humping or anything similar, because he did NOT want a good number of people sitting there to immediately imagine him and Sora doing that. And they totally would. It seemed Sora was thinking along the same lines, while also seeming to grow increasingly more mortified with the terms that were being thrown out, including second base (no one could agree on the definition), blowjobs, and mutual masturbation. Sora ended up red as a beet, half laying on the floor, and exclaiming, “I’m out of soda!”

“You just chugged the rest of it,” Kairi pointed out.

“I was thirsty!”

“I’m getting bored anyway,” Roxas put in.

“Let’s play Seven Minutes In Heaven!” Hayner suggested. “I’ll go write everyone’s names down!”

He set off on his task. “Can we not,” Riku droned.

People were standing up and stretching. “Do you have a closet down here, Kairi?” Olette asked.

“Yeah, it’s in the corner. But I’m not sure if we should—“

“Here!” Hayner was waving around two plastic cups. “I put all the boys’ names in one and all the girls’ names in the other. Who wants to do the honors?”

Pence reached into the boys while Olette reached into the girls. “Wait,” Kairi started, specifically glancing at Riku, “I don’t think we all agreed to this.”

“Oh come on, let’s see what names are drawn at least,” Hayner said.

“Roxas,” Pence said.

A beat later, Olette said, “Naminé.”

The two looked at each, shrugged, and disappeared into the closet. Hayner gleefully set a timer.

“This is so dumb,” Riku commented.

“They’re probably just going to stand there,” Pence put in.

“They would make a cute couple, though,” Olette added.

They sat around, devouring the last of Naminé’s bag of chips until Hayner’s phone made an obnoxious honking sound. The pair were let out of the closet, looking the same as they had when they went in. Hayner shook the cups at them until they drew out the next pair.

“Olette,” Naminé said.

A devilish grin appeared on Roxas’s face. “Sora.”


	11. Like Whoa/On a sunny day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still trying to semi-keep up with a weekly schedule as much as possible lol my friend got married last week so I was out of town <3  
> As always, thanks for reading! (❛▿❛✿)  
> (Also I am aware that Sora's birthday is supposed to be in March and just ignored this)

Sora paled. “I…I’m not…”

“Don’t be embarrassed!” His cousin pushed him towards the closet, sticking his tongue out at Riku. Olette followed. The pair disappeared after Sora sent Riku what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

Riku was already white knuckling the fabric of his pants, imagining how good it would be to punch the smirk off Roxas’s face. It’s not that he didn’t trust Sora—it was a dumb game in the first place—but it made him so goddamn jealous thinking of his boyfriend in a dark, enclosed space with someone who wasn’t himself.

Kairi put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s alright.”

“I’m gonna kill him,” Riku growled, looking at where Roxas was talking about some sport with Hayner. “He’s doing this on purpose.”

The minutes ticked by slowly. Sora was feeling beyond awkward, his elbow digging into a shelf behind him, while Olette just stood there and smiled at him. He tried to lean back as far as possible. He cleared his throat. “Have you played this before?”

“Hmm…I think once or twice, yeah. Nothing has ever happened though, but I think people like to imagine things.”

“So we’re like, not obligated to do anything?”

“No, of course not!”

“Oh, good,” Sora laughed. “I was worried.”

“I do know you’re taken.” She laughed in return.

Sora had forgotten about that. “You don’t think it’s weird?”

“No.”

“Oh, that’s good. Some people seem to think it’s weird since we’re both guys.”

“Well those people are stupid. You think Riku is mad about this?”

“Oh,” Sora said nervously, “yeah, more than likely…”

“Oh dear.” Olette gave him a concerned look. “I’m glad my boyfriend isn’t the jealous type.”

“Who’s your boyfriend?” Sora asked, curious.

“My secret,” she giggled.

Meanwhile, Riku was scowling at everyone. They all maintained their distance, except for Kairi. He kept asking if the time was over yet. “Will you stop asking,” Hayner finally half snapped.

Riku was fed up. He was tired. He was pissed off. The whole day had stressed him out; he hadn’t really wanted to come in the first place, even though it was clearly a graduation party for him. He didn’t like being around people. He didn’t like how loud it was, he didn’t like the majority of the conversation topics that floated around him, he didn’t like having to share Sora the whole time. He especially didn’t like the constant jabs by Roxas, or the way he got pulled into games that could have ended in an infinite amount of embarrassment. He didn’t like how his boyfriend was currently in a closet with a girl.

He was standing before he realized it. In two strides, he reached the closet and yanked it open. “We’re leaving.”

Sora and Olette, as predicted, were standing there. “Oh, hi Riku,” his boyfriend greeted.

Riku grabbed Sora’s hand and stormed off with him. Sora waved goodbye to everyone but let himself get dragged off. Kairi didn’t try to stop this. Everyone, save for Olette who looked like she felt bad and Roxas who rolled his eyes, looked mildly concerned but kept lounging around.

“Riku!” They were fast walking down the street. “Riku!” Sora repeated. “Will you cut it out?” he finally said harshly, jerking his hand free. “You’re hurting me.”         

Riku blinked. “I..I’m sorry.”

“You realize me and Olette didn’t do anything right?”    

“Of course.” Riku ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry.”

“’s ok.” Sora mumbled back, linking his fingers through Riku’s again and walking forward.

“I just get so damn jealous, all those girls all over you,” Riku half spat.

“They weren’t!”

Riku rolled his eyes.

Sora continued, swinging their hands. “You have nothing to be jealous of. Although I wish you had as much fun as I do. You have so much fun when it’s just the two of us, but then with other people you like…don’t get along. Remember this morning? With the gushers and stuff? If you acted like that with everyone, they would all love you like I do!”

Riku’s breath caught in his throat. Once he could breathe again, he said, “That’s easy for you to say. Everyone _actually_ loves you. You could date anyone. And yet you’re with me.”

“Riku!” Sora abruptly stopped, taking his boyfriend’s face in his hands and squeezing his cheeks together.

“Will you stop that?” Riku managed.

“Not until you smile!”

“How am I supposed to when you’re doing this.”

“Oh..good point.” Sora let go, beaming and Riku gave him a forced smile. “Anyway, you could also date anyone you wanted! You’re super-hot!”

“Thanks, Sora,” Riku said wryly.

“I am 100% serious! Also.” Sora paused dramatically. “You’re the only person I want to date.”

“Saying such embarrassing things,” Riku mumbled.

“Besides, I was thinking.”

“Well that sounds like bad news.”           

Sora shoved his shoulder at him. “You seem like you’re in a better mood.”

It was already pretty late, but the air was still warm. They looped closer to the beach, which brought up fresh winds and the smell of salt. Sora stopped, watching the waves crash against the shore. The moon was bright overhead.

“What were you thinking about?” Riku asked.

“Oh, just that I love you.” He said it so easily, so simply.

It would be easy for him. He was crouched down, still watching the ocean. Riku took a step forward, reaching for him. “I—“

“Do you want to go to my house or yours?” Sora stood up, smiling.

“Oh,” Riku said, caught off guard. “Up to you. I think my parents are out of town again.”

Sora’s face brightened. “Awesome.”     

They headed over there, Riku’s heart refusing to calm down. Sora was completely calm, however.

Riku felt just a tiny tinge of guilt over the fact that he always brought Sora over specifically when his parents were gone; his parents were gone relatively often and despite Sora’s parents’ easygoing nature and the fact that they would give their son privacy, their house was small and they always seemed to be around.

Sora made himself at home, discarding his shoes and bounding to Riku’s room.

“I’m actually pretty tired from that party,” he admitted, crawling onto Riku’s bed.

“You’re telling me.”       

Sora eyed his boyfriend. “You know how we were playing that game?”

“Which?”

“Never Have I Ever.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You think you could, uh.” Sora finally looked embarrassed. “Show me how you, um, do the thing.”

“Sora, they talked about so many things, I can’t possibly know what you are talking about.”

“The handjob,” Sora squeaked. He threw his hands up to cover his face.

Riku felt blood rush to his cheeks. “Oh. I mean. Sure. If you want. Are you sure you want to do that? You can look it up. Or just try it on your own. It isn’t hard.”

“I thought it would be more.” Sora stopped, searching for the word. “..fun? If we did it together.”

Riku swallowed, hard, something stirring in his stomach. “I can do it for you?”

“Yeah?” Sora started playing with a string dangling off his shirt. Two things occurred to him. “Wait! I’m wearing Roxas’s clothes! Won’t it be weird?”

_You could take them off,_ Riku thought. Riku said, “He’s probably already done stuff in those clothes. And you’re going to wash them before you give them back anyway.”

“Oh. I guess so. Also.”

“Yes?”

“Wouldn’t you have to..see me..naked?”

“Like see your..I mean, yeah. But I can look away or something.”

Sora rocked back and forth, both thoughtful and nervous. “You can wear a blindfold!” he decided.

Riku rolled his eyes. “You realize I have a penis too, right?”

“Shh!”

“And I don’t have a blindfold.”

“We can make do with something!”

Sora tried to tie a t-shirt around his boyfriend’s head but the length wasn’t long enough. Towels were too thick. He finally found an old, black hoodie in Riku’s closet that would work; however, it looked funny, having a hoodie awkwardly tied around his head. Sora fell over on the bed, laughing his head off. Riku scowled. “Will you stop that?”

“But it looks good on you!” He kept laughing.

Riku, irritated, tried to shove Sora but couldn’t see anything and missed entirely, falling forward. Sora’s laughter got louder.

“Oh my god, I’m taking it off.”

“No!” Sora said quickly. “You have to do it blindfolded!”

“Are you really that embarrassed?”

“Maybe.”

Riku sighed. “Fine. But we should kiss and stuff first.”

That seemed reasonable to Sora. He latched onto his boyfriend, pulling him on top of himself and still laughing slightly. They started kissing; it came a lot more naturally now. Riku was a bit more aggressive than usual, figuring that Sora would have to be really into it for this to work. He sucked on his tongue, and pressed against him. Sora felt hot exceptionally quickly, his nerves tight in his stomach. Riku leaned up, and ran a hand over Sora’s torso, brushing over his chest and stomach. Sora’s eyes widened, staring unabashedly since Riku couldn’t see any of his expressions at the moment. Riku’s hand finally landed on Sora’s groin, and he pressed against his boyfriend gently.

Sora made a hiss sound. Riku began to rub him outside of his pants. “That ok?”

“Y-Yeah.”

Riku leaned back down, hand not moving away as he kissed Sora again. This kissing momentarily distracted the brunette from the pressure he was feeling lower. Their tongues moved back and forth for a while, until Riku asked, “Sora, can you pull your pants down for me? I don’t think I can do it blindfolded.”

“Oh, sure,” Sora said, trying to play it cool but his shrill voice betrayed him. He quickly pulled his pants down to his knees. “Um..my underwear too?”

“Yeah.”

Sora paused before doing that too, and laid back down, heart racing. Riku’s hand hovered uncertainly above his boyfriend, one arm holding himself up. Sora was slightly pleased to see that Riku’s cheeks were red.

This was proving to be a challenge due to the blindfold; expecting this, Riku tentatively brought his hand down, landing it on Sora’s stomach, before moving lower. Sora watched intently. When the hand finally got to its target, they were both tense. Riku wrapped his hand around it and began pumping slowly. Sora settled further down into the bed, no longer watching; he had seen enough to know what was happening. Riku was above him, a black hoodie covering his eyes, and his hair falling forward with his movements, effortlessly holding himself up. “Oh…ah…” Sora squeaked, his lips parted.

“It’s ok?” Riku asked, moving slightly faster.

“Yeah…it feels….”

“Good?”

Sora nodded then realized his boyfriend couldn’t see that. “Y-Yeah.”

Pleasure was building up like a spring and Riku was getting increasingly flustered. Sounds were beginning to spill out of Sora’s mouth and his boyfriend figured he wouldn’t last long, especially considering he had never done this before. Sora didn’t appreciate the moans that were coming out but he couldn’t seem to stop them. This spurred Riku on and he leaned down slightly, catching Sora’s lips with his and pumping faster.

“Riku,” he moaned.

Sora was tensing underneath him, getting louder. _Oh no. Oh my god._ Pleasure ripped through his body all at once and he shuddered. Riku could sense all of this, plus he felt something wet on his hand, so he gave a few slow pumps and pulled away. “Can I take the blindfold off now?” he asked.

“No!” Sora practically yelled. Riku’s intentions were mostly pure—the blindfold was starting to pull on his hair—but he also wanted to see what Sora looked like right now.

Sora examined the mess, astounded that that had felt so good. There were strings of white on Roxas’s shirt, and Riku was sitting up, holding his hand away from himself. He sputtering into a long winded apology over Riku’s clearly wet hand. “It’s ok, it’s ok,” Riku cut him off.

Sora yanked his clothes back up and ran off to the bathroom. “You can take the blindfold off,” he said behind himself while rushing off.

Riku did so with a sigh of relief and went to grab some tissues to mop up his hand. Sora, meanwhile, frantically scrubbed white off the shirt, and by the time he reappeared, the shirt seemed mostly clean. “Can I put this,” he gestured at the shirt, “in your washing machine?”

Riku nodded and Sora settled into one of Riku’s t-shirts. “Do you,” Sora said tentatively, “want me to do that for you too?”

“You don’t have to.” Riku’s body had already settled down.

“I can!”

“I know you can.”

Sora pouted. “Doesn’t it hurt?”

“No, it went away.”

“Oh. Well next time then.”

They both stared at different walls, faces red.

~ ~ ~

Time passed by peacefully. Riku took on odd jobs like he always did, which largely dealt with physically helping out people around town; Sora spent most of his time lounging around on the beach. Except for when the two were hanging out. Their relationship seemed to have stabilized and grown more comfortable. Little things that used to make them feel incredibly awkward and shy felt natural; the acts were so minuscule that anyone outside of the relationship likely wouldn’t have noticed. This included acts like changing into pajamas while in the same room. They were clearly in that stage where they wanted to spend every minute together, which naturally wasn’t a realistic expectation. When they weren’t together, they were thinking about each other. Kairi called them sickening after the pair, more than once in a day, nuzzled their faces together. She was joking but they really were starting to reach cavity levels of sweet.

Physically, they hadn’t done anything further. They spent their time goofing off with the occasional make-out session, and plenty of chaste hand holding and snuggling. The couple wondered when things would naturally progress, but a few factors were holding them back. The main was that they had seemed to be getting interrupted recently. At one point, Riku had Sora pinned to the bed and Riku’s dad appeared, so Riku threw Sora to the side and put him in a headlock to pretend they were wrestling. That had certainly made them more aware of who was around and any sounds outside the room.

The other was that Sora was determined to make Riku feel good too. He wanted to do it right, but he was also incredibly nervous and unsure. Riku, for his part, found it a challenge to coincide his intense feelings of want and attraction with the fact that Sora needed to go slow. The fact was just so apparent, despite Sora always welcoming Riku’s touch, if only because he was so inexperienced in ways others their age weren’t. Regardless, the two thought about their physical contact often. It was new and exciting and almost addictive.

Sora knew he should probably look a few things up but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He could brush it aside by thinking, _I’ll do it tomorrow_ or _I’ll ask Riku or Kairi._ He knew it wasn’t wrong to look up sexual information but it felt weird and he knew that images would come up that he didn’t want to see.

Sora’s birthday was fast approaching, and he kept getting bombarded with questions on what he wanted and what he wanted to do. He just wanted to spend time with Riku and Kairi. They didn’t like that answer, though. On a particular day, Sora had called Riku in the morning, seeing if he could hang out. Riku had uncharacteristically said he was busy with no explanation and dodged Sora’s inquiries. After they hung up, Sora stared at his phone. _Well that was weird…but oh well. I can just go swimming today._

He bounded to his usual spot but to his dismay, the beach was closed. This happened occasionally for a variety of reasons. “Well this sucks. No Riku, no swimming.” He plopped down on a park bench in despair. “Oh! Kairi!”      

He couldn’t make plans with her either because she was also busy. Sora contemplated his day. He didn’t have a good method of transportation, and his parents were working.

He finally decided to go on a walk. It would be able to strengthen his leg muscles (he swore to match Riku in strength one day) and would give him time to enjoy the quiet and his thoughts. There was a forest fairly nearby, so he headed off towards it, whistling something.

“Do you really think he’ll like it more if it’s a surprise?” Riku was asking Kairi. The pair had drove off to the next town to pick up supplies for a surprise birthday party for the brunette that they had been planning. They had a few differing opinions, but could agree on most things, especially when it came to Sora. They had already settled on a s _mall_ gathering of people to please the social Sora but not make Riku suffer too much.

Kairi picked up a party hat. “Well, he’s never had one as far as I know, but I think so.”

“I think he’ll get scared when people yell at him and punch whoever is closest.”

“Then you can be at the front!” Kairi said cheerfully, placing the hat on Riku’s head and laughing at his straight face.

She was dumping a lot of stuff into the cart. “Have you figured out a present for him yet?” Riku asked.

“I still think Disney DVDs and candy is good enough.”

Riku couldn’t decide on a gift. He wanted it to be special and something Sora would adore. He followed Kairi as she walked to the checkout, purse bouncing off her hip. “Actually,” Kairi continued, “I thought of something you could do.”

“And what’s that?”

They conversation paused as Kairi brought the bright assortment of supplies and they stepped outside. “You know that stitch plushie he has?”

“The one that looks like he ripped one of its eyes out and then pulled the stuffing out?”

“Yes.” Kairi pointed her car keys at her bug and yanked the back open, shoving what was probably more than what they actually needed for this celebration. She huffed, replacing her sunglasses back on her face from where they had been stuck in the pocket of her shorts. “You could get it fixed.”

“Without him knowing?”

“Obviously!” They climbed into the car and Kairi drove off, heading to family restaurant for lunch.

“How would I even do that, Kai?”

Kairi smiled at the shortened version of her name, never hearing it much from Riku. “Oh, come on, I’m sure you’re in his room all the time. Just snatch it from his shelf or bed or wherever it happens to be when he isn’t paying attention.”

“He loves that thing, pretty sure he would notice.”         

“But he’ll love it! Do _you_ have any better ideas, Mr. Lover Boy? And it’s your first major holiday since you two started dating!”

“The second you get a boyfriend, I’m going to annoy you about it every day.”

Kairi stuck her tongue out. “I’m serious though, you know he would love it.”

“I guess you’re right.” Riku glumly looked out the window. “I can probably manage it somehow. So you know of a place that will fix it?”

“Yeah! I’ll send you the website once we’re home!”

“Thanks. Do you think I should try to do something, like, romantic?”

“Maybe, but I think Sora will be happy regardless.”

Their lunch was peaceful.

Sora, meanwhile, was marching through the woods. The fresh air felt good in his lungs and at one point, he thought he saw a bunny. He tried to run after it but the bunny naturally bolted and disappeared. After a little while, he got tired and sat on a boulder. “I should take Riku here,” he thought out loud. It was beautiful and serene. The walk perhaps was more of a hike, but it wasn’t challenging, and it certainly wouldn’t be challenging for Riku. _I should have brought some water…Riku and Kairi wouldn’t have forgotten something like that._

He missed them suddenly. “I wonder what they are doing without me.”

Riku and Kairi had just gotten back in the car and were headed to the mall. Kairi was blasting a pop song that Riku secretly liked, singing loudly and tapping the steering wheel. She had convinced him to spend more time in town to save her a trip she would have to make later to get some new shoes; her flip-flops had broken recently, and there was a store here that had a crazy variety.

They walked up and down aisles of the store. Riku looked at everything although he was uninterested. Kairi waved every strangle flip flop at him that she found; ones covered in yellow rubber duckies, ones that were shaped like fish, ones that had large, staring aliens on them. She settled on a simple pink pair that were just like what she had owned previously.

Riku pointed that out.

“But I loved those flip-flops!”

They continued to walk around the mall mindlessly.

Sora was considering heading back home. He had been hiking for a good amount of time at this point and was still feeling a little thirsty. He turned around to head back the way he had come, branches cracking under his feet.

He had just been thinking about how much it would suck in the fall when school started when he saw something move. He immediately froze, his eyes searching for the movement. There it was again.

Sora noticed something small and brown, staring at him. It was the bunny.

“Hi again!” Sora beamed. _It’s so cute. Maybe I can get closer and take a picture to show Riku and Kairi._

Sora took a step forward. The bunny stared.

Another step. The bunny looked like it was contemplating running now.

Sora took another step but unfortunately his foot made a crunch on something below and the bunny bolted. “No, wait!” Sora ran after the poor thing. “I didn’t mean to scare you!”

Sora wasn’t sure why he was running forward and this realization made him laugh. It’s not like the bunny would give up and say, “Well, your running was impressive, I got to say.”

Sora had just stopped laughing when his brain sent an alarm through his body when his foot just…didn’t hit the ground. Sora felt himself falling and he gave a surprised yell. He had accidentally ran off the edge of a hill. The fall wasn’t that far, and Sora went to brace for landing.

His right foot landed fine, but when his left returned itself to the ground, it was with an awkward, painful twist. Sora toppled over, holding his arms out to catch himself. His palms scrapped against dirt, stinging. “Shit!” Tears sprang into his eyes. He was now half laying on the ground. He got up onto his knees, examining his hands. They were only a little bloody from where skin had ripped off. _People are going to call me so stupid if they find out I ran off a cliff chasing a bunny,_ was his first thought, making him want to cry more.

His ankle was radiating pain, forcing him to pay attention to it. He carefully pulled himself over, sitting down with a whine. When he examined the area, it looked normal, but when he looked closer, he could tell it was starting to swell.

“Oh my god, shit,” he mumbled, running a hand over the injury. It was starting to hurt like hell. _What am I supposed to do now?? Can I walk?? I have to get home!_

He awkwardly wobbled to his feet. Putting weight on his foot was a mistake. “Owwww,” he shrieked, leaning onto a tree for support. If he kept that leg up, he could kind of hop around. “I should just give up and call my mom.”

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, pressing the power button to turn on the screen. He stared at a black screen. “This can’t be happening.”

He was really panicking now, pressing the power button over and over, willing it to turn on. _Come on, come on, just turn on, please turn on._

The phone was not responding. Sora shoved it back into his pocket, now determined to hop his way out of the forest since there didn’t appear to be an alternative.

Kairi and Riku were unsurprisingly having a better time. They got milkshakes for the ride home and, after helping Kairi drag a bunch of stuff into her house, they parted ways. Once Riku was home, he flopped onto the couch. His dad was talking to him about orientation for college. Riku pretended he was listening, shooting a text to Sora, **Hey sorry I wasn’t paying attention to my phone. How was your day?**

He got all the way through a shower and dinner without hearing back from Sora, which was highly unusual. _Well sometimes he forgets to check it or lets it die while he is out._ Riku didn’t know how true this thought was at the moment. It hadn’t started to worry him yet.

In fact, when his phone started ringing, he assumed it was his boyfriend. “Hello?” Riku answered.

“Riku?”

“Yes?” he asked, confused. The voice was familiar but he couldn’t place it.

“This is Sora’s mother. Is Sora over at your house?”

“No,” Riku said slowly. “Why?”

“I haven’t seen him all day, and he usually lets me know where he is. I thought maybe he was with you and forgot to tell me.”

Riku abruptly sat up in bed. “I talked to him this morning. Did you check the beach? He’s probably there.”

“My husband did, but the beach is closed today.”

Riku felt panic rising and settling into this chest. “Did you try calling him?”

“It goes straight to voicemail.” She sounded tearful now.

“Did you call Kairi yet?”

“No, I thought I would check with you first.”

“I’ll call her, and we’ll contact his other friends to see if he’s with them.”

“Alright, thank you, Riku.”

“I’ll let you know. Don’t worry, we’ll find him.” Riku hung up, fingers already frantically dialing Kairi’s number.

_Sora, where are you?_


	12. Control

Kairi felt as if her heart had stopped. All of her previous happiness after a great day had immediately drained out of her body, leaving her hollow and panicky, once Riku informed her of Sora’s unknown whereabouts.

Riku was no better. He ran straight out of his house and began to check any place that would make any sense for Sora to go; unfortunately, this was a large number of places. Kairi began to make phone call after phone call, but no one had seen or heard from their friend.

Riku checked the beach (just to be sure), he checked around his own neighborhood and Sora’s, figuring there was a slim chance he decided to randomly walk over, he checked all of Sora’s favorite stores and hideaways. He began to yell, “Sora!” with no regards for maintaining a calm public appearance. He was speeding around faster, and faster, a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Where the hell are you?” He finally stopped and leaned against a stop sign, breathing heavily and wanting to cry.

His phone buzzed. “Hello?” he answered immediately.

“Riku? Any luck?” Kairi’s voice reached him.

Riku’s shoulders slouched, having subconsciously hoped it was Sora. “No, you?”

 “No.” Kairi’s voice was shrill. “I called everyone I could think of. I called like thirty people!”

“There..there has to be a place we haven’t checked yet.” Riku clenched his fists.

“What if someone took him? Like a crazy tourist?”

“Who would want him? He would talk their ear off within twenty minutes and they would drop him back off here.”

Kairi paused and gave a small giggle; Riku smiled for a split second, having met his goal of trying to calm her in a round-about way. “I think I’ll head out to look too, where are you?”

The two began to fan out, still looking. The sun was beginning to set; Riku’s stomach filled with a horrible acid and dread. The more time ticked by the more freaked out he became. He wasn’t one to go to pieces, but this was so unusual. Sora didn’t disappear without a word. Riku’s mind flashed every frightening scenario that could exist. _Where could he have gone?_

Riku was now running through the same streets he had already been down, the muscles in his legs beginning to ache. “Sora! Sora!”

He ran into Kairi, who had tears in her eyes, and she threw herself at her friend. “He..he’ll turn up, right?”

Riku hugged her. “Of course. We’re probably overreacting.”

“I hope so…”

The two pulled apart, both looking up at the darkening sky. “Have you tried outside of town?”

Kairi shook her head.

“I only did the outskirts, maybe we should try further.”

They set off.

Sora was hopping towards what he hoped was the edge of the forest. He would take a few hops and then lean onto a nearby tree. He was exhausted. He was scared.

He had admittedly made good progress, but he wasn’t even sure if he was going the right away anymore. He couldn’t seem to find any path and the daylight was beginning to fade.

It was all just trees and trees and the occasional bird staring at him. And whenever he accidently put weight on his bad foot, it hurt like hell.

Sora pushed off from a tree trunk, wobbling forward again. The trees were seeming to thin out and he felt the tiniest spark of hope take hold in the middle of his fear.

Then he heard it. At first, he wasn’t sure what it was, but something finally clicked in his brain: _that’s a voice._ He began screaming, “Hey! Help! I need help!”

He desperately hopped forward, still yelling; he paused and listened.

That was definitely a voice. And if he didn’t know better, he would think it was someone saying his name.

Riku was at the edge of the forest when he heard Sora shouting. He abruptly turned on heel and ran straight into the woods, yelling, “Sora?” Kairi, who hadn’t heard anything, tried her best to keep up, her feet slapping against the ground as she ran after her friend.

“Sora? _Sora??_ ” Riku’s heart pounded in his chest. _I swear I heard him. Please. Please let him be ok._

Riku saw the other boy first. A flash of messy brown hair and he somehow ran harder, wind rushing past his face. “Sora!”

Sora was leaning against a tree again, head slightly down. He looked up, startled at the sound that was rushing towards him. When he saw Riku, all the tension melted out of his body. “Riku!” He somehow forgot about his injury and tried to run towards his boyfriend. Naturally, this was a mistake and pain shot up his leg and he started to fall over.

Riku, with the desperation of a worried parent, threw himself over and caught Sora in his arms. “Oh my god, oh my god.” He was breathing hard. “Sora! Sora!” Riku felt so relieved at the weight of Sora against him. He squeezed, shoving his face into Sora’s hair and to his distant embarrassment noticed he was crying.

Sora was finding it hard trying to balance like a flamingo with a clinging boyfriend. “Riku! Can you…”

Riku pulled away, blinking away tears. “Are you ok?” he exclaimed. There was a sound behind them, which was Kairi who had finally caught up.

“Sora!” she yelled, also throwing herself forward.

They both smothered the brunette. Sora took it well, for his part, and once the three-person hug ended, Riku finally noticed how awkwardly Sora was standing. _He’s hurt,_ flashed through his mind.

Riku scooped Sora up. “Hey! What are you…” Sora tried to put up a fight but quickly gave up. Riku carried his boyfriend bridal style, Kairi following next to them.

Sora was with his friends. He was safe.

“What’s wrong?” Kairi asked.

Riku walked forward silently. “I hurt my ankle,” Sora gave her a sheepish smile.

“Oh my god, we need to get you to a hospital!”

“That’s where I’m going,” Riku said.

“Guys, I’m ok.”

“Can you even walk?”

“…kinda.”

“What were you doing in the woods of all places??”

“I was going on a walk.” Sora closed his eyes. The steady movements of Riku’s body underneath him was oddly soothing.

“You scared us half to death!” Kairi exclaimed.

“’m sorry.”

“Idiot,” Riku muttered, despite how relieved he was still feeling.

The three exited the forest and by the time they had contacted Sora’s family and got him to the hospital, he had fallen asleep, head tucked against Riku’s chest.

“He’s kinda cute like that,” Kairi commented.

“Don’t get any ideas,” Riku said, half joking and holding Sora purposefully away from her.

She stuck her tongue out at him and the pair, along-with Sora’s parents, waited while he got seen. Riku had to gently shake his boyfriend awake. Sora ended up with a wrapped ankle and bandaged hands and strict orders to rest. Which meant a lot of sitting and elevating his foot and icing it and most importantly, not running around at the beach and swimming. He wasn’t very happy.

His parents drove everyone home, finally asking what had happened. Sora said, “Well you know. These things happen.”

“You just magically hurt yourself in the woods?” his dad asked.

“Yep.”

“What stupid thing did you do?” Kairi asked.

“Nothing!” Sora swatted her.

He was sad when Riku was dropped off at his house and he couldn’t think of a way to get out of the car to say goodbye. Riku whispered, “I’m so glad you’re ok. I’ll text you,” before departing.

When Sora went to bed that night, he felt like the luckiest person alive somehow.

Unfortunately he felt less lucky during the next two weeks in which he had to keep wearing an ankle brace and resting. Not for the first time, he was laying on his bed, pouting, while Riku sat nearby, listening to him complaining. Sora wasn’t good at staying still and this was especially true during summer break.

“This sucks!” He waved his arms for dramatic effect.

“You don’t say.”

“What about my birthday??”

Riku rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to spend every one of your birthdays on the beach, you know. You would think you’d be tired of it by now.”

“Never!” Sora flopped his head back on a pillow with a fwump sound.

Riku crawled up onto the bed, his boyfriend looking at him suspiciously. “What are you doing?”

Riku crawled further up until he was on top of Sora; he actually did have ulterior motives for once, outside of wanting to make out. He had been eyeballing the stitch plushie that today had been sitting on Sora’s pillow.

“Nothing,” he said slowly, running a hand up Sora’s side.

“I don’t feel like making out!” Sora playfully kicked upwards.

“You brat.” Riku pinned his boyfriend against the bed, using his weight against him.

Sora blew onto Riku’s face, momentarily making Riku’s eyes feel dry; Riku brought his hands underneath Sora’s armpits threateningly.

They stared at each other.

“No,” Sora said firmly, pointing a finger.

Riku inched his fingers up.

“No!”

He began to wiggle his fingers and Sora burst out laughing. He amused himself by tickling for a moment or two before stopping. “Well, if you don’t want to make out, what do you want to do?” Riku sat up.

“I do want to make out.”

Riku gave him a look before tackling him. The playful mood carried into their make out session as they rolled around the bed, taking turns pinning the other. Riku was careful with Sora’s ankle; the younger teen seemed increasingly uninterested in his injury as their kissing got more heated.

Riku had Sora underneath him again, one hand resting on the bed next to Sora’s head and the other on Sora’s hip. Riku opened his eyes, looking for that plush. Sora was making happy humming noises while Riku ran his tongue over his lips. Carefully..carefully…he moved the hand near Sora’s head, reaching up with the goal of swatting the stitch off the bed. _And then I’ll kick it under the bed and grab it later after Sora falls asleep._

It was an elaborate plan, but a needed one with how protective Sora was over his old stuffed animals.

Riku’s finger’s touched the faded fabric of the plush lightly. His tongue prodded at Sora’s mouth, pretending to explore. He flicked his wrist abruptly, the plush easily toppling to the floor. _Yes!_

He happily refocused his attention back on their kissing but Sora turned his head away. “Stitch fell down!”

The brunette squirmed out from under Riku, placing the stitch on top of his shelf, with a pat on its head. “There we go.”

Riku thought, _How in the world did he notice?_

“Where were we?” Sora wiggled his eyebrows suggestively before throwing himself at his boyfriend.

Riku caught him, thinking fast. _Maybe if he falls asleep, I can just take the plush when I leave._ “Am I allowed to stay over tonight?”

Sora frowned. “I think my mom wanted to take me shopping for new shoes tonight, so probably not.”

“Did your feet grow another several inches?” Riku teased.

“Shush!” Sora karate-chopped his head and leaned forward, giving his boyfriend a small kiss.

“Maybe I could give you a birthday massage?” Riku tried.

Sora sat back, surprised. “But my birthday isn’t til next week!”

“Well, we are going to hang out with Kairi, right?”

Sora nodded slowly, not understanding. Riku continued, “Do you really want to get a massage in front of Kairi?”

“Oh.” Sora’s cheeks turned pink. “I guess not.”

“Yeah, so,” Riku brought their faces close, speaking lowly, “let me?”

“Alright.” Sora giggled, nervously. “How do we..?”

“Uhh…hmm..” Riku hadn’t thought that far. “What kind of massage do you want? Back? Feet? Full body?”

Sora waved his hands in front of himself. “Full body seems like a bit much!”

“Why don’t you take off your shirt and lay down on the bed, and I can massage your back?”

Sora agreed, blushing harder. _What an abrupt offer..but a massage might be nice…_

He yanked his shirt off, throwing it off the bed, and instantly laid face down, turning his head to the side to peek at Riku. “This good?”

Riku swallowed hard despite the innocence of the act. “Mhm.”

Riku brought his hands to Sora’s shoulders first and got to work. His goal was obvious: get Sora to fall asleep and run off with the plush. It shouldn’t even be too difficult as Sora had always fallen asleep easily, with no regard for how bright it was or what time it was or what was going on. This was just a nice excuse to get Sora to relax. Ok, and to be able to see Sora without a shirt, something that didn’t happen often anymore.

Riku kneaded, pressed, and rubbed down Sora’s back over and over, completely unsure if what he was doing was effective in the slightest. He dug his thumbs into Sora’s lower back, _God, he’s so warm and soft._

_…that’s a weird thing to think, isn’t it?_

“Hmm,” Sora purred, “not so hard.”

“Oh, sorry.” Riku decreased how much pressure he was using and continued.

The minutes stretched by silently. Riku was beginning to feel bored and snuck glances at his boyfriend. Sora’s eyes were closed, which was a good sign, and he was breathing deeply, but he didn’t seem to be asleep.

Sora was enjoying the attention immensely. He didn’t know a massage could feel so nice and made a mental note to try to get them from Riku whenever possible. _Oh, I should give him a massage too…_ he thought, taking a deep relaxing breath, filling his lungs entirely. Riku’s hands were steadily working over his muscles which, granted were in good shape, but it felt incredible.

Sora felt himself drifting off.

Riku massaged for a few more minutes, noting Sora’s deeper breathing. His hands finally slowed down and paused. “Sora?” he whispered.

No response. _Yes!_

Riku carefully extracted himself, stepping off of the bed and reaching up for the plush, staring at Sora for any signs of movement.

The stitch was in his hands and he was out the door, Sora snoring behind him.


End file.
